- Title: TUNISIA: PRIME MINISTER NOUIRA ADDRESSES POPULAR RALLY ON STUDENT AGITATION
- Date: 12th February 1972
- Summary: 1. GV Sports stadium 0.03 2. GV Crowds arriving 0.08 3. SV TV cameraman 0.11 4. SV Prime Minister arriving 0.22 5. GV PAN INT. Audience seated 0.29 6. SV Prime Minister waving & crowd applauding (3 shots) 0.43 7. SV & CU Prime Minister addressing crowd (6 shots) 1.05 Initials SGM/1504 SGM/1452 Script is copyrigh
- Embargoed: 27th February 1972 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Tunis, Tunisia
- Country: Tunisia
- Reuters ID: LVAEUPVV58X87MWVK6JQW7B8H8NR
- Story Text: A small group of agitators had sought to turn Tunis University into a centre of subversive activity, the Tunisian Prime Minister, M. Hadi Nouira, told a popular rally on Friday.
About 20,000 people attended the rally, organised by the ruling Destour (Constitution) Socialist Party at the capital's El Menzah Stadium.
After hearing the Prime Minister, the meeting voted a resolution of total and unconditional support for the Government of President Bourguiba, and sang the Revolution Hymn.
Students at Tunis University began a boycott of studies on 31 January, in protest against the continued detention of a former professor sentenced in 1968 to 10 years imprisonment on subversion charges.
There were several incidents at the University, and police were called in on 5 February to disperse demonstrators. On 8 February the Tunisian Cabiret ordered the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and the Faculty of Law and Economic Science to be closed until 30 September.
SYNOPSIS: A crowd estimated at 20,000 went to the sports stadium in Tunis on Saturday for a popular rally called by the ruling Destour Socialist Party of President Bourguiba. They had come to hear the Tunisian Prime Minister, M. Hadi Nouira, speak on the students trouble which had led the Government to close two faculties at Tunis University earlier in the week.
Students at the two faculties began a boycott of studies in January, in protest at the continued detention of a professor jailed for subversion in 1968. On Thursday the Cabinet ordered the faculties to be closed until September. The Prime Minister told the rally that a small group of agitators were trying to turn the University into a centre of subversive activity. He said the students had become pawns in the hands of elements working against the interests of youth, the University, and the whole nation.
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