Chief of Tunisian Army Pledges His Support for ‘the Revolution’
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: January 24, 2011
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TUNIS — The general who may be both the most powerful and the most popular figure in Tunisia spoke publicly Monday for the first time since the ouster of the former dictator, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, pledging to uphold “the revolution” and urging patience until the interim government can hold new elections.
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“Our revolution is your revolution,” the military leader, Gen. Rachid Ammar, yelled through a megaphone to more than 1,000 demonstrators in a square near his office, according to several witnesses. “The army will protect the revolution.”
General Ammar was trying to placate protesters who are demanding the dissolution of the interim government because of the continued dominance of officials from Mr. Ben Ali’s old ruling party. His remarks are significant because he is playing an unseen but potentially decisive role in the Tunisian government. Many here hope Tunisia will be the first Arab democracy, rising from the first popular overthrow of an Arab strongman.
In the final days of Mr. Ben Ali’s rule, Tunisians watched in wonder as the military inexplicably withdrew from positions defending the capital. After Mr. Ben Ali fled the country a day later, Arab newspapers reported that it was General Ammar’s refusal to fire on civilians that led to Mr. Ben Ali’s final exit.
When chaos engulfed the country the next day it was General Ammar’s military that visibly stepped in to control both civilian looters and marauding members of Mr. Ben Ali’s former security forces. And in the week since then, the military has repeatedly interceded to protect civilian protesters from violence at the hands of the police.
Tunisian newspapers have lauded General Ammar as a national savior. Opposition political leaders have warily acknowledged that his military is the main force upholding the security of the country and its fragile interim government.
Some have speculated that he himself may run for office, noting that his bullhorn speech resembled the beginning of a political campaign. Others, however, argued that his speech — evidently intended to bolster the credibility of the civilian government — was the first sign that he was working for the civilian leaders and not pulling their strings.
A crowd of soldiers who heard the speech, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the general had explicitly endorsed the need for free elections. Speaking fluent English, the soldiers said the general had told the crowd that both the people and the military would ensure a democratic outcome. They praised the protesters for ridding the country of the corruption that surrounded Mr. Ben Ali, and pledged their own support for a constitutional democracy.
Western diplomats and political scientists say the Tunisian military is unlike any other in North Africa and the Middle East — much smaller, more professional and historically apolitical. It has never fought wars and instead worked mostly on efforts like peacekeeping missions or disaster relief.
The soldiers themselves expressed considerable pride at the difference between their force and those in other countries in the region, like Egypt, where all three post-revolutionary dictators have come from the military and, they said, the military’s first loyalty is often to itself. The soldiers all smiled with evident delight as they volunteered that their democratic revolution might threaten other Arab leaders.
Challenges to the interim government’s legitimacy, meanwhile, mounted. Caravans of hundreds of demonstrators had arrived in Tunis over the weekend from the impoverished southern provinces where the revolt began. Defying an 8 p.m. curfew, they set up camp in the old-city square amid the office of the prime minister, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defense.
Witnesses said that in the early hours of Sunday morning police officers stationed nearby tried to disperse the rowdy crowd with water cannons, but the Tunisian military again interceded to protect the demonstrators and hold back the police — a job that one army officer called “very difficult.”
By Monday morning, hundreds of local people had joined the newcomers, calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, previously the right-hand man to Mr. Ben Ali. “Ghannouchi, wait, wait, we will dig you a grave,” they chanted.
Residents of Tunis donated stacks of old mattresses and bags of food for the demonstrators. Women dispensed sandwiches from the stone porch of the Ministry of Finance, renamed by graffiti artists the “Ministry of Thieves,” and demonstrators picnicked amid army tanks and coils of barbed wire.
The government appeared to be trying to wait out the protesters. A government official, speaking without authorization and on condition of anonymity, argued that the protesters would settle down after they had vented some of the pent-up anger left from decades of silence enforced by the old government.
The government bolstered its credibility with the protesters by returning to the airwaves a private television station shut down Sunday in what seemed to be a blatant violation of pledges to respect freedom of speech. Officials blamed holdover members of the special political police force, acting without authorization, and there were conflicting reports about which official deserved credit for reopening the station.
Officials of the legal opposition parties and Al Nahda, an outlawed Islamist party, have held talks about the formation of a supervisory council to oversee the new government, people involved in those discussions have said. Such a body could help resolve the problem of finding an authority other than the ruling-party-dominated Parliament that could oversee drafting of a constitution.
Separately, Jeffrey D. Feltman, American assistant secretary of state for the Near East, arrived in Tunis to confer with the interim government.
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