Ghannouchi-Recent clashes between police and protesters occurred in the capital of Tunisia

Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi said all people arrested in the riots would be released unless they are proven to be involved.

The new wave of riots that occurred just hours after Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi announced that the country's interior minister has been sacked and replaced.



Ghannouchi told reporters that the dismissal of Interior Minister Rafik Belhaj Kacem will be followed by the formation of committees to investigate the recent violence and cases of corruption.

He said all people arrested in recent events that occurred in some parts of the country will be exempted, unless they are proven to engage in acts of extreme violence, vandalism and looting.

Minister of Communications of Tunisia Samir Laabidi defended the government's performance and said there are external forces that try to shake the stability of Tunisia. Laabidi said small groups of extremists have been riding a variety of demonstrations, take advantage of the situation and create strife in the country. Laabidi specifically accusing Muslim groups and leftist protests riding community.

Labidi said 21 people were killed in recent clashes, a figure far lower than the death toll cited by human rights groups.

Schools and universities across the country are still closed by government decree, to stop the growing student protest movement.

Khattar Abou Diab, professor of political science at the University of Paris III, argued the protest movement was mostly the spontaneous and driven by young people who are concerned about unemployment.

Abou Khattar believes that the catalyst of this crisis is the lack of job opportunities for professionals educated in Tunisia. Both in Tunisia and Algeria, he argued, the wave of protest was led by those who are ignored, among them young people without any future, which hurt because of political stagnation, lack of freedom of expression or freedom of the press, accompanied by unemployment and the crisis global economy.

Khattar Abou noted that Tunisia combines an authoritarian political system with free market economy which is usually the result is better than most countries in North Africa, and the education system is generally strong.

Khattar said the reaction to President Ben Ali was mostly just rhetoric and doubt that his promise to create more employment and dismissal of the minister of interior will ease the protests.