Tunisia president orders army to protect oil-rich areas

By Adel al-Thabti, Yousri Wannas and Kareem al-Boali

TUNIS

A Tunisian rights NGO on Thursday held the presidency responsible for potentially involving the army in social conflict.

The NGO made the assertion after President Beji Caid Essebsi on Wednesday ordered the army to protect the country’s phosphate mines and oilfields from protest movements which he said “could disrupt production”.

At a Thursday press conference, Abderrahman Hedhili, head of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights, warned that the president’s actions could lead to “dire consequences”.

Essebsi’s order to the army, Hedhili said, could serve to “fuel preexisting social tensions” in Tunisia.

In response to recent protests in the country’s south, Essebsi had declared that the army was ready "to protect oil-rich parts of the country".

"I know it is a serious decision,” he said. “But it’s one that must be taken.”

Belhassan al-Waslati, a Defense Ministry spokesman, for his part, said Wednesday that the army was “committed to implementing the president’s instructions”.

Recent weeks have seen hundreds of young Tunisians stage sit-ins near the country’s southern oilfields to demand more job opportunities and stepped-up development of the oil-rich Tataouine province.