Police opens fire on demonstrators in Redeyef

One killed and 25 wounded

Today, the city of Redeyef witnessed a serious escalation when the police forces deliberately shot demonstrators leaving to death a young man named Hafnawi Ben Ridha Ben Hafnawi Maghzawi and 25 other people wounded by gunshots in their legs for most of them: Ismail Rahali, Bouali khlifi, Helmi Marzouki, Khaled Rahali, Hachem Dhaouadi, Mohamed Achiri, Tarek Bedyef, Tarek Jridi, Mohamed ben Taher Khlifi, Hussain Wled Amor,Kamel Ben Mohamed Tababi, Habib Tababi, Nidhal Amaydi, Khaled Touati, Wissem Karamti, Hachem Ben Razzak, Ahmed Ahmadi, Houcine Dgaichi, Nizar Amaidi, MOHAMED Taher Ben Othman, Bouali Rahali, Mustapha Lackhem. The seriously wounded persons were taken to Regional Hospital of Gafsa.

This new escalation underlines the persistence of the regime in power in the denial of the legitimate demands of the people of Redeyef and the mine’s basin (Oum Larayiss, Mdhila, Mitlawi…) who have been uprising since last January against unemployment, poverty and marginalisation. Once again, this shows that this regime only represents the rich and is totally isolated from the people and the poor classes.

The Workers’ Communist Party of Tunisia:

- Strongly condemns this new crime committed against the defenceless people of Redeyef and denounces the falsification of facts by the official media in order to justify the repression of protesters and the description of the demonstrators as ‘rogue’ to maim and distort their demands.

- Expresses its full solidarity with the family of the martyr Hafnawi Maghzawi, added to the long list of martyrs for dignity, who fell during the elapsed half century under the rule of dictatorship, and with all the other wounded victims and their families.

- Confirms that the perpetrators of these crimes should be judged.

- Expresses again its continuing support for the legitimate demands of the people of Redeyef, Oum Larayiss, Mdhila, Mitlawi, Feryana and Megel Bel Abbas and praises their courage in the fighting for their rights despite the repression and the torture they have experienced during the recent periods (breaking into houses, assaults on people, the killing of the young Hichem Ben Jeddou Alaimi, vandalism and looting…).

- Calls on all the democratic forces composed of parties, associations, organisations, trade unions and human rights bodies to consolidate their support to the people of the mine’s basin and to put pressure on the authority to stop the repression, to withdraw the police forces from all the cities and to compensate the locals for the physical and the moral damages and to respond to their legitimate demands.

Workers’ Communist Party of Tunisia
Tunis, 6th of June 2008