Tunisia violence mounts, Ben Ali fires government

TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali fired his government and called an early parliamentary election on Friday in an increasingly frantic effort to quell the worst unrest in his two decades in power.

Authorities declared a state of emergency and an overnight curfew. Gatherings of more than three people were banned and state television warned that "arms will be used" if the orders of the security forces are not obeyed.

The announcements came as police fired teargas and gunshots rang out to disperse crowds in central Tunis demanding the veteran ruler's immediate resignation despite his promise on Thursday to step down in 2014.

Medical sources and a witness said 12 more people were killed in overnight clashes in the capital and the northeastern town of Ras Jebel.

Before the latest deaths emerged, the official death toll in almost a month of violence was 23, while the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights said it had a list of at least 66 people killed.

The 74-year-old president announced in a television address on Thursday evening that he would not seek a sixth term as expected in 2014, following a month of violent protests against unemployment, repression and corruption.

While Tunisia's problems are shared by other countries in the region, the latest unrest was sparked when police prevented an unemployed graduate from selling fruit without a licence and he set fire to himself, dying shortly afterwards of his burns.

In power since 1987, Ben Ali made sweeping concessions, saying security forces would no longer use live ammunition against protesters and promising freedom of the press and an end to Internet censorship. He also said the prices of sugar, milk and bread would be cut.

On Friday, state television flashed the announcement: "The president has decided to dismiss the government and to hold legislative elections within six months." It gave no details.

But protests continued in the capital and other cities on Friday. Around 8,000 people rallied outside the interior ministry in central Tunis, chanting "Ben Ali, leave!" and "Ben Ali, assassin!"

After police fired teargas and wielded their truncheons, crowds of youths retreated a little way from the building and started throwing stones at the police, who responded with more tear gas grenades. Reporters also heard gunfire nearby.

For the Tunis protesters, Ben Ali's promise to quit and cut essential food prices was not enough. "We don't want bread or anything else, we just want him to leave," they chanted. "After that we will eat whatever we have to."

The UGTT trade union confederation had called for a general strike, which analysts said would test of whether the president had managed to calm public anger with his speech.

EVACUATION

Several countries, including Britain and the United States have advised citizens to stay away, threatening the tourism trade which is Tunisia's economic lifeblood.

Holiday operator Thomas Cook said on Friday it was evacuating almost 4,000 German, British and Irish tourists from Tunisia and TUI Travel said it was laying on aircraft for those who wanted to return and cancelling its next flight on Sunday.

Ben Ali set his departure date in an emotional speech after weeks of deadly clashes between protesters and police.

U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said the U.N. stood ready to help investigate the deaths.

"We've made it clear we believe there needs to be investigations. A large number of people have been killed and there are very serious allegations of the manner of these killings," Colville told a briefing in Geneva.

Many of those involved in the protests said they were fed up with unemployment, a lack of liberty and the huge wealth of a tiny elite under Ben Ali.

Foreign Minister Kamel Morjane told France's Europe 1 radio that Ben Ali might form a national unity government after what he called the president's "clear and sharp correction."

Asked about forming a coalition government including opposition leaders such as Najib Chebbi, he said: "I think that is feasible and I think it would be entirely normal."

Former colonial power France, which criticised Ben Ali's handling of the protests for the first time on Thursday, urged him to deliver on his promises, as did the European Union.

Internet sites which had been blocked for weeks, including YouTube and Dailymotion, started working again after the president's televised speech.

"I have been deceived, they deceived me," he said in an emotional reference to senior officials. "I am not the sun which shines over everything ... I understand the Tunisians, I understand their demands."

There is no obvious candidate to succeed Ben Ali, who has dominated political life in Tunisia and sidelined rivals since he seized power in 1987, declaring independence leader Habib Bourguiba medically unfit to remain president.

Chebbi, one of Ben Ali's most outspoken internal opponents and the man Western diplomats view as the most credible figure in the opposition, said the president had done the right thing.

"But what remains (to be seen) is how will this be carried out and I ask that a coalition government be created," he said.

(additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, John Irish, Brian Love and Laure Bretton in Paris; writing by Paul Taylor, editing by Philippa Fletcher and Giles Elgood)