TUNIS: Tunisia's new government, faced with violent street protests for retaining members of the deposed president's cabinet, offered a blanket amnesty to all political groups including the banned opposition and also declared three days of national mourning for victims of unrest that toppled the previous government. The pledge came in the ruling coalition's first cabinet meeting. Protesters have complained that despite a promised amnesty, only a few hundred of those imprisoned for political reasons during the 23-year rule of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali had been released. “We are in agreement for a general amnesty,” said Higher Education Minister Ahmed Ibrahim, an opposition party leader who joined the coalition after Ben Ali's ouster. Asked if the amnesty would include people jailed for membership of Ennahda, an opposition movement that was repressed by Ben Ali's security services, Ibrahim told Reuters: “Yes, of course, everybody will be part of this amnesty.” The announcement followed another day of protests, with police firing shots into the air to try to disperse hundreds of demonstrators demanding that ministers associated with the rule of Ben Ali leave the government. The protesters, who gathered outside the Tunis headquarters of the RCD, refused to move back when police fired shots from behind a metal fence. There were also protests in other towns across Tunisia. The prime minister and caretaker president are both veteran former RCD members who quit the party this week. Protesters have kept up pressure for a government free of ties with Ben Ali and the old guard. Other ministers in the interim government have also resigned from the RCD party in a bid to restore credibility after four opposition ministers quit the cabinet in protest. A junior minister seen as tied to the former administration stepped down Thursday. “I am stepping down for the higher interests of the country in this delicate situation to try to bring the country out of crisis and ensure a democratic transition,” Zouheir M'Dhaffar, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's office, was quoted as saying by the official TAP news agency. Between 3,000 and 4,000 people gathered in the town of Gafsa to protest the presence in the government of ministers who worked for Ben Ali, union activist Hedi Radaoui told Reuters. At the Borj Lamary prison, just outside Tunis, a bus emerged carrying inmates released under a government order to free all political prisoners. Authorities say they have seized some assets from Ben Ali's family. Tunisia's central bank Thursday moved to reassure international creditors, saying it held enough foreign currency reserves to meet financial and commercial obligations. It said it held 12.6 billion dinars ($8.8 billion) in foreign reserves, enough to cover 143 days of import needs.
