Word: tunisia
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...Tunisia has long seemed a gracious outpost of moderation and stability in the developing world: solidly pro-Western, extending a perpetual welcome to foreign sun worshipers. But when word came that the government was raising the price of bread by over 100%, the facade of stability cracked. Riots erupted last week, starting in outlying regions and spreading to the streets of Tunis, the capital. As mobs composed mainly of teen-agers and young men in their 20s rampaged through city streets, smashing shop windows and attacking post offices and banks. President
Behind the bizarre succession of events there may have been considerably more at issue than the cost of bread-though rises in food prices have sparked riots in many countries. Despite Tunisia's relatively prosperous face, it is still a country where the rich get richer. In the south, where the rioting began, peasants, mineworkers and laborers complain bitterly of their economic deprivation, compared with the higher standard of living in the more heavily industrialized north...
Many rioters were young hooligans, but a substantial number were members of Tunisia's underclasses, which until now have suffered in silence. Said a senior Western diplomat: "There is a Tunisia that has not benefited from economic development and that was usually hidden from view. Now they have shown that they are a substantial power for the first time...
Farther north, around Tripoli, the evacuation of P.L.O. troops besieged by Syrian-backed Palestinians finally began. On Saturday, an Italian ferryboat took 93 wounded P.L.O. fighters to Cyprus with the help of the International Red Cross. As five Greek ships prepared to evacuate Arafat and his remaining troops to Tunisia and North Yemen, Israeli gunboats shelled his positions. Said an Israeli official: "We want him to sweat a little...
...called for a cease-fire in Chad. In N'Djamena, PresidentHabré did not rule out the possibility of holding talks with Gaddafi but said he would never negotiate with his archrival Goukouni, whom he described as a "Libyan mercenary." Gaddafi, in turn, held a press conference in Tunisia at which he brazenly denied that there were any Libyan troops in Chad...