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Article: Tunisia Enters Ben Ali Era; President Mixes Tradition, Reforms to Quiet Opposition
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- October 22, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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In the year since seizing power from his aged and autocratic
predecessor, President Zine Abidine Ben Ali has methodically ushered
Tunisia into a new era of more relaxed politics and increased
emphasis on the country's Arab and Islamic heritage, according to
Tunisian and diplomatic sources.
Despite economic hardship and nagging doubts among some
activists, most of Tunisia's 7 million inhabitants seem to have
embraced Ben Ali's gestures toward political opening as a promise of
change long overdue under the 30-year reign of Habib Bourguiba, the
sources said.
If the former general had not replaced Bourguiba's increasingly
erratic and oppressive rule in a bloodless takeover last Nov. 7, they ...