Interior Ministry's clarifications on Monday's incidents in Tunis

"About 300 persons gathered on Monday, in front of the Interior Ministry premises, shouting hostile slogans against the security forces there, and heaping insults on them," the Interior Ministry specified in a communiqué made public on Tuesday. In the meantime, the Ministry added, one of the protestors had lit a "hand gas grenade," causing panic among demonstrators who had dispersed in all directions, pointing out that the used grenade belongs to the equipments stolen during former attacks against security premises. According to the same communiqué, "some protestors threw stones on policemen and vandalised public and private properties, which required the intervention of security units to disperse them. The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) which is the main organiser of this protest march, condemned on Tuesday in a communiqué, the strong-arm tactics of the police and their excessive aggressivity against demonstrators who mainly claimed fair justice, to speed up the judgment of the symbols of corruption and enforce the general amnesty. In similar communiqués, several political parties denounce the use of force against participants in peaceful demonstrations, even if they are not authorised, reasserting their attachment to the freedom of expression and peaceful demonstration.