Tunisia's ex-president Ben Ali dies in exile

Yahoo – AFP, Kaouther LARBI, September 19, 2019

Former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is survived by his wife
Leila Trabelsi and six children (AFP Photo/Fethi Belaid)

Tunis (AFP) - Former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the first leader to be toppled by the Arab Spring revolts, died Thursday in Saudi Arabia, Tunisia's foreign ministry told AFP. He was 83.

"We had confirmation of his death 30 minutes ago," the ministry said on Thursday afternoon without giving further details.

His lawyer, Mounir Ben Salha, confirmed the news, citing family members and Ben Ali's doctor.

Ben Ali, who ruled his North African country from 1987 until 2011, was viewed by some as a bulwark against Islamist extremism, but faced criticism for muzzling the opposition and his reluctance to embrace democracy.

Eventually, growing frustration over unemployment and high prices snapped.

In late 2010, a young trader in Sidi Bouzid, in the impoverished centre of the country, set fire to himself in protest at humiliation by police.

The demonstrations of early 2011 brought soldiers onto the streets before
Ben Ali resigned on January 14 (AFP Photo/FETHI BELAID)

That sparked protests which rocked Tunisia and triggered a deadly clampdown.

But the protesters won: on January 14, 2011, Ben Ali fled Tunisia for Saudi Arabia.

His rapid departure sparked a string of similar uprisings across the region, toppling Egyptian and Libyan strongmen Hosni Mubarak and Moamer Kadhafi.

The turmoil also triggered what was to become Syria's devastating eight-year war.

Pyjamas in exile

In mid-2012, Ben Ali was sentenced in absentia to life in jail for his role in the deaths of protesters during the uprising.

More than 300 people were killed in the initial repression of the protest movement.

Little verified information has emerged on Ben Ali's life in exile.

A Tunisian family watches TV on January 13, 2011 as Zine El-Abidine
Ben Ali resigns as president (AFP Photo/Fethi Belaid)

Photos posted on Instagram in 2013 showed the former strongman smiling in striped pyjamas.

Rumours of his death had circulated several times in recent years.

A week ago, Ben Salha said the former president was in a "critical condition", before denying reports that he had died.

"He is not dead, but his state of health is bad. He has left hospital and is currently being cared for at his home -- his condition is stabilising", the lawyer said at the time.

Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said last week that on humanitarian grounds Ben Ali could return to die in his own country -- "like every Tunisian" -- should he wish to do so.

It was not possible to ascertain immediately whether the former president's funeral would take place in Saudi Arabia or in Tunisia.

In this file photo taken on New Year's day 1986, former Tunisian President Habib 

Ben Ali Bourguiba (R) shakes hands with his then prime minister Zine El-Abidine 

Ben Ali, who went on to replace him the following year (AFP Photo)

'Part of Tunisia's history'

Tunisians canvassed by AFP on Thursday did not oppose a funeral in Tunisia.

"He deserves to be buried in his own country. It can't do any harm," said Moncef Balghaji in central Tunis.

"He is dead! This person was president and he was a part of Tunisia's history", he added.

Another resident, Mounir -- who did not want to give his surname -- said "I do not see him as a president, but as a Tunisian citizen... He has the right to buried here, regardless of what he did."

Ben Ali is survived by six children; three daughters by a first marriage and two daughters and a son by his wife Leila Trabelsi, who accompanied him into exile.

A career soldier, Ben Ali took power on November 7, 1987 when he toppled Habib Bourguiba, the ailing father of Tunisian independence who was by then reported to be senile.

A member of the Tunisian security forces takes aim towards a demonstrator who

 prepares to throw a rock towards them during clashes in January 2011 near

Sidi Bouzid (AFP Photo/STR)

Tunisians, including Islamists, hailed his bloodless, non-violent takeover.

He went on to make Tunisia a moderate, secular voice in the Arab world while Western governments viewed him as an effective bulwark against extremism -- despite criticism of his reluctance to embrace democracy.

Aside from his conviction over the death of protesters, Ben Ali was also sentenced in absentia to misappropriating public funds and ordering the torture of army officers who allegedly led a coup attempt against him.

Tunisia on Sunday held a presidential election, in which two outsiders -- law professor Kais Saied and detained media mogul Nabil Karoui -- made it through to a second round run-off.

The country's first post Arab Spring democratically elected president, Beji Caid Essebsi, had died in July aged 92, bringing the first round of the presidential polls forward by several months.

With the burial in Saudi exile of former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia is turning the page on more than two decades of nepotism and repression with a large dose of indifference https://t.co/wToi3G7Br3

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 21 september 2019

Related Article:

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“.. A New Social System

There is a new kind of social system, a new way of communicating where everyone can talk to everyone all at once. Millions can do this, without borders or culture clash. Take a look at Egypt. It confounded all of those who sit in the power seats not far from here [Washington, D.C.]. The old energy thinking is afraid because there's a vacuum with no emerging leader. You see, everybody knows there has to be leadership, there has to be hierarchy. There has to be all of these things in order to create a revolution. Well, let me tell you, that's old, old thinking. Because you just saw revolution of consciousness without leadership, without hierarchy, without any one person whipping the others into a frenzy to convince them of anything. It just happened together, almost like there is a wave of consciousness that is spreading over the earth. There is. When everyone can talk to everyone, this is what you get. Dictators know this, so the first thing they wish to shut down are the new communications tools.

I want to go further than that. Let's get personal and interview a Syrian or a Libyan. Let's talk to an Egyptian for a moment. Let's find the man on the street and ask him some questions. I'll give you the question. "What do you want?" Here's what they're going to tell you. "We want to choose what we do in our own land. We want the glory of our culture back. We want abundance in our homes and towns. We want schools. We want to have some of the things the rest of the world has. We want to take some of the things that our country has in abundance and share it with the citizens. We want our grandchildren safe. We want good hospitals." That's what they're going to tell you.

So why do I tell you this? Because nowhere in their rhetoric is, "And we want to kill the Jews!" Because they're smarter than that, and they're becoming conceptual and beginning to understand this premise: War is hell. It leads to sorrow, death, destruction and heartbreak. It creates poverty and famine - and they know it. They're looking at Europe. They're looking around and they're starting to see unification being an answer to that which is what they want for their children. They don't want war. They don't want war! They may not like the Jews, but they now understand that in order to really have what they want, they must work with them.

So the uprisings you are seeing, dear ones, are not what you think, or what you are being told. Don't worry, thinking, "This is the beginning of the end." Oh, it's going to have a seesaw of energy; it's going to have fear. It will even have those terrorist leaders who want to control it. You're going to be told this and that, but in the end, in a decade, when you can go there and take a look, you're going to have states that are at peace with Israel. One of the most controversial things we have told you is this: Peace in the Middle East is not going to come from anything Israel does. It's going to come from that which the Islamic states do. The young people there don't want a war. Now, all you have to do is convince the Jews of this so that they don't create one of their own. Do you understand the sense of this? Higher consciousness and conceptual thinking brings about revolution that is not replaced by another dictator. The dictators are falling. Human Beings in these third-world areas want to raise their families the way you do - in peace and safety and stability.

The Evidence is Everywhere

What has happened in the last 50 years? Go to South America with me. How many dictators were there then and how many are there now? There is one left and his days are numbered. Watch him, for he'll want to ally with other dictators and there won't be any! A controlled economy will absolutely fail. His is starting not to work.

These dictators are falling because they represent an old energy paradigm, an old Human nature. A new consciousness is taking over. Look at the big picture. Get out of fear and understand again that time is slow to you and these things are generational, not seasonal! There will be battles won and lost for high consciousness. There will be one country that may even seem to go backwards a little before they go forward. This is the way time works and consciousness works. Here is the prediction we've given you: You're beginning to see the seeds of peace in the Middle East. Not in the news, but in the new social areas with young people. And when it settles, the biggest issue will still be the Palestinians. But perhaps for the first time, their Islamic brothers in countries around them will begin to include them instead of not including them as they are now. Watch for a compassion of brotherhood - not for war, but for eventual peace and stability.

And yes, there'll be those who tell you just the opposite, dear one. This is what we see. Turn on your news and you are seeing it. But you see it graphically, do you not? And you see the sorrow and the death, for that is the most dramatic. Just think of those who have come into this planet to give their lives and sacrifice for something grand - peace in their own land. It's just what you did to create this United States. You had to fight your way through it, didn't you? It seems like an old paradigm that sometimes you have to involve the bridge of swords between old and new. But sometimes you just do to slog through a Human nature which has been a certain way for thousands of years.  …”