Arab Winter: Secular opposition politician murdered in Tunisia - Islamists suspected

The Islamists have created a climate of intimidation in the Arab countries. It is developing in a similar direction as in Pakistan, where Islamists have already succeeded in destroying the country.

Widow of Tunisian opposition leader tells of 'daily' threats

Basma Khalfaoui, the widow of the slain Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid, has told FRANCE 24 that her late husband received many death threats before his assassination on February 6. She holds the ruling Islamist party responsible.

The death threats against Chokri Belaid – the Tunisian opposition leader whose assassination on Wednesday has plunged Tunisia back into a political crisis – had become ever more frequent before his death, according to family members.

“[The death threats] in no way deterred him from continuing his political activity and defend the principles to which he was deeply attached,” Belaid’s widow, Basma Khalfaoui, told FRANCE 24 on Thursday.

Belaid, a left-wing and secular leader, was a fierce critic of Tunisia's ruling Islamist Ennahda party, which has been in power since the October 2011 elections.

At her late husband's wake, Khalfaoui accused Salafists and people with links to Ennahda of murdering her husband.

“When we were out walking with our children, people approached to greet my husband and thank him for his courage and commitment to the country. But also to warn us of danger,” the widow said.

Thousands of people were expected to gather in the Tunisian capital of Tunis and across the country on Friday in protests set to coincide with Belaid’s funeral.

http://www.france24.com/en/20130208-chokri-belaid-widow-wake-death-threats-ennahda

------------------------

Slain Tunisian opposition leader Chokri Belaid buried amid popular anger

Tunisian liberal opposition leader Chokri Belaid was buried on Friday in the capital Tunis in a funeral attended by an estimated by 1.4 million people, many of them chanting anti-Islamist and anti-government slogans.

It was Tunisia’s biggest funeral since the death of Habib Bourguiba, independence leader and first president, in 2000.

Belaid’s assassination has plunged Tunisia deeper into political crisis.
Mondher Thabet, a Tunisian political analyst, warned that some radical Islamist movements have accused the moderate ruling Islamist Ennahda party of having drifted from a projected Islamist path for Tunisia’s political future.

Thabet said some Jihadist Salafi groups criticized the government for organizing an Islamic funeral for Belaid.

Violence erupted near the cemetery as police fired teargas at demonstrators who threw stones and set cars ablaze. Police also used teargas against protesters near the Interior Ministry, a frequent flashpoint for clashes in the Tunisian capital.

The army was deployed and helicopters circled overhead as more than 50,000 people massed along the 3.5 kilometer (2 mile) route that bore Belaid’s coffin as it was transported to the Jellaz Cemetery from the Djebel Jelloud district

Tunis was at a near standstill, and all flights to and from the country’s main airport were cancelled after the country’s biggest union called a general strike to protest Belaid’s killing.

The mourners shouted slogans denouncing the ruling Islamist Ennahda party, calling them “assassins,” and women ululated as they accompanied Belaid, who was shot dead outside his home on Wednesday, to his final resting place.

“With our blood and our souls we will sacrifice ourselves for the martyr,” shouted the crowd, which included prominent politicians.

There were chaotic and emotional scenes earlier, with one of Belaid’s daughters fainting in tears.

“My son is a man who lived with courage and dignity. I was never afraid, he left as martyr for our country,” said the mother of the leftist opposition leader, who was shot dead outside his house early on Wednesday by a lone gunmen.

“We lost a great hero,” Beji Caid Essebsi, a centre-right opposition leader and former premier, told AFP.

But he sounded an optimistic note, despite the deepening political crisis and the violence that has rocked the country since Wednesday, saying: “We must never fear the worst.”

Belaid’s funeral coincided with weekly prayers in the Muslim country, whose long-established secular tradition has been countered by the rise of one of the region’s most powerful Islamist parties.

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/02/08/265062.html