Things had degenerated after small groups of youths from nearby neighbourhoods attempted to start looting. The police fired teargas, which drifted across the cemetery as the youths set fire to a few cars. Among the gravestones, some mourners plucked sprigs of aromatic herbs and held them to their noses against the smell of tear gas.
Copyright © 2013. Eileen Byrne All rights reserved.
Tunis, Tunisia, January 14 2013
Copyright © 2013. Eileen Byrne All rights reserved.
The Commonweath war cemeteries of northern Tunisia were laid out after the Second World War, in the 1950s. Their British designers aimed for an English pastoral style, perhaps naively seeking to create “a corner of some foreign field that is forever England”. Nowadays their manicured side lawns are sometimes used, respectfully, by local boys for football practice. Perhaps this is one way for the living to keep the dead company.
In 1943, Allied tanks passed through the small town of Thala, western Tunisia, following the Battle of Kasserine that February.
Today Thala is proud of its recent ‘martyrs’, killed by police bullets in the 2011 revolution that ended the authoritarian regime of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali. Six young victims are commemorated on this monument.
For Tunisian campaign-an untold story
Copyright © 2012. Eileen Byrne All rights reserved.
With many thanks to Samir Mejdi, Issam and the others at Club UNESCO Alecso Moulares in Im Larayes for their most valuable help.
Just click on the title to see more pics and text — from Jendouba, Ghardimaou, Kef, Kasserine in January this year.
