| 22 October 2012 | 5 Comments
 
 

Residents of a district in the industrial coastal city of Gabes held a general strike today to protest a government-imposed curfew, as police and protesters clashed for the fifth day.

The Ministry of Interior implemented a curfew yesterday in four districts of the Gabes governorate, including the district of Bouchemma, following unrest triggered by the release of the results of an exam to recruit 50 technicians and 600 employees at Tunisian Chemical Group (GCT) on October 17.

Protesters are  demanding that the GCT recruit more people from Gabes as a form of compensation for the industrial pollution caused by the GCT in the region, said Mariem Chairi, a resident of downtown Gabes who witnessed the protests.

Chairi said that classes were suspended today as the unrest continued. A group of protesters intended to attack the local National Guard headquarters but were stopped by the security forces, she said.

Representatives of the Ministries of Labor and Industry and the regional labor union in Gabes agreed at an emergency meeting on October 18 to create a commission that will respond to questions about the exam results.

“Bouchemma is affected the most by pollution caused by factories belonging to the GCT  but to our disappointment the results of the recruitment did not reflect this reality,” Ramzi Khlifi, one of the organizers of the Bouchemma general strike, told Mosaique FM.

Chairi said that the police response has only exasperated the protesters’ frustrations.

“The police are cursing at the protesters and calling them names. They used tear gas heavily so people respond by throwing rocks at them,” Chairi said. “They are even throwing tear gas at homes.”

Residents have rallied around the protests as a way to express their frustration with the current economic situation and the authorities’ handling of the initial unrest, Chairi said.

“People are angry at the way the government has neglected this region and how it hasn’t been working on development projects,” Chairi said.

 

 

 


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