The death toll of the Tunisian uprising was higher than reported, according to the United Nations mission in Tunis. Whilst the provisional government states about 350 killed and injured, the UN figure is double (including prisoners killed in state jails). Whilst a symbolic government of renewal has promised free elections in six months and has purged itself of RCD involvement at the behest of the protestors, the power of the police state remains in place.
The securocracy of Ben Ali has not been dismantled: low-level violence continues in many towns. The sources of trouble may be looters, or the disaffected police out of control. Whilst the military holds a protective ring, Tunisia will only be safe when the local thugocracy, abetted by the former ruling party, is beaten, bribed and retired. A judicious mix of monetary incentive and violent examples usually does the trick for the remnants of a police state.
On Monday, hundreds of people ransacked and looted public buildings in violence which union officials said was instigated by members of the former RCD ruling party of ousted strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Mohamed Drbali, a member of a “regional comnmittee for the defence of the revolution” and trade unionist Sadok Mahmoudi, said police were nowhere to be seen during Tuesday’s protest while army tanks were posted near official buildings.
If a low-level backlash does not extend beyond isolated incidents like Kasserine above, then the self-styled revolution will develop. However, a taste for the "street" and a lack of response from the interim elite on grievances may herald a further wave of radicalisation. Mubarak's obstinacy further east may feed this desire to reject musical chairs at the top and riot for a new state of affairs, a world turned upside down and rendered anew: A police state more terrifying than the old.