PRC announced they will hold mass rallies across the country for the next three days, starting today.

The trade union, General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) has also said it will call a general strike in several southern cities in response the police brutality, i.e the state terror.

Protests have been going on across Tunisia for almost a month now. The UGTT says more than 70 people have been killed in clashes with government forces since the last weekend.

"It's chaos here in Kasserine after a night of violence, sniper fire, theft and looting of shops and homes by policemen in civilian clothes," said Sadok Mahmoudi, an activist of the UGTT regional union describing yesterday's situation there. This story was corroborated by other witnesses.

"The number of killed has exceeded 50," Mahmoudi said, citing a report obtained from the medical staff at the regional hospital of Kasserine, where the bodies were transported.

This comes as UGTT has called on Tunisian President(resp. the dictator!!) Ben Ali to order an independent inquiry into the deaths of demonstrators. But the call was rejected by the regime!

Meanwhile, according to sources of the People's Resistance, in the last hours thousands of heavy armed Soldiers in APC and backed by tanks were deployed in the centre of Tunis after the People's Rebellion spread to the capital's center.

Almost at the same time "the gov't sacked the interior minister and announced it would free protesters", AFP reported a short while ago.

 http://blog.jinbo.net/CINA/?m=2006-02