* U.S. secretary of state warns against return to autocracy
* Encourages Islamist, secularist forces to work together
* Tunisia was cradle of the "Arab Spring" revolutions
SIDI BOU SAID, Tunisia, Feb 25 (Reuters) - U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Tunisians on Saturday
to protect their newly-won freedoms and called on Islamist and
secular parties to work together in the country that launched
the Arab Spring.
Speaking to a group of about 200 students, Clinton also
urged young people to use social media and other technologies
that enabled popular revolts across the region last year to hold
their new rulers to account.
"After a revolution, history shows it can go one of two
ways. It can move in the direction you are now headed, building
a strong, democratic country, or it can derail ... into
autocracy, into new absolutism," Clinton said in a meeting a
Andalusian-style seaside villa.
"The victors of revolutions can become their victims," she
added. "You must be the guardians of your democracy."
Clinton spoke during a swing through North Africa that has
been dominated by the violence in Syria, where forces loyal to
President Bashar al-Assad have kept up attacks on civilians and
opposition forces seeking to end his family's four-decade rule.
On Friday, she attended a gathering of nations known as the
"Friends of Syria" that sought to increase political, economic
and moral pressure on Assad to step down.
Russia and China have vetoed two U.N. Security Council
resolutions designed to end the violence and other nations
disagree sharply on whether to arm the Syrian opposition to help
them fight Assad's forces.
In Tunisia, a popular revolt forced autocratic leader Zine
al-Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country on Jan. 14, 2011 and the
country has become a model for democratic change in the Middle
East, inspiring revolutions that toppled autocratic rulers in
Egypt and Libya.
The North African country has since calmly elected its own
government, defying predictions it would descend into chaos,
while Ben Ali's secret police have been disbanded and the news
media enjoy unprecedented freedoms.
POLARISATION
For all its progress, however, Tunisia has acute problems of
poverty and unemployment and its society is split over the rise
to power of Islamists who were banned from public life for years
under Ben Ali.
The moderate Islamist Ennahda party which dominates the new
government has said it is will try to represent all Tunisians,
including secularists who say Islam and the state should be kept
separate.
But the country's political scene has quickly grown
polarized, with secularist parties and the Islamists accusing
each other of betraying the principles of the revolution.
Regular protests against poverty and inequality in
provincial towns, some of them violent, point to a growing
impatience with the democratic process. Diplomats warn this
could be exploited by opportunist politicians seeking to restore
autocratic rule.
Other Middle Eastern states emerging from the upheavals of
the Arab Spring, especially Libya and Egypt, are facing similar
issues, but Clinton said Tunisia could guide the way.
"There are those here in Tunisia and elsewhere who question
whether Islamist (politics) can really be compatible with
democracy," Clinton said.
"Tunisia has the chance to answer that question in the
affirmative and to demonstrate there is no contradiction ... and
that means not just talking about tolerance and pluralism, but
living it."
Clinton stressed the importance of reforming the country's
economy to create more jobs, and of young people using
technology such as social media "to expose corruption (and to)
encourage transparency and good governance."
She also exhorted Islamist and secular parties to work
together, including in the assembly which will draft a new
constitution.
"To write a constitution, the governing party, Ennahda, will
have to work with other parties, including secular parties, and
persuade voters across the political spectrum to respect
fundamental principles" such as freedom of speech, religion and
association as well as the rule of law, she said.
(Editing by Christian Lowe and Sophie Hares)
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