Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:12 GMT

By Andrew Hammond

TUNIS, Jan 19 (Reuters) – The sudden exit of ousted Tunisian leader Ben Ali and his family in a popular revolt has left a big hole in the life of the affluent suburbs of the capital that were once their playground.

The ruling clan of the North African country of 10 million were regular fixtures in the social scene of Gammarth, Marsa and Carthage districts where they maintained houses and had extensive business interests.

Many people were still afraid to talk openly about a clique referred to for years in whispers as simply “The Family”.

Employees of empty hotels, restaurants and bars — many owned by members of his clan — said they hoped business would survive the upheaval. The country has been under curfew over the past week and tour operators have pulled out foreigners.

“We don’t know the fate of these places,” said a man who worked at a bar owned by a member of Ben Ali’s wife’s family. “We don’t know what will happen with ownership. We’re still working and we just come to work every day.”

A palace often used by Ben Ali — who fled to Saudi Arabia with family last week after unprecedented popular protests against poverty, corruption and political repression — stood deserted on a hill over looking the Mediterranean.

Guards would not let anyone enter a deserted large hotel owned by Belhassan Trabelsi, a brother-in-law of Ben Ali. “You can’t come in, there’s renovations going on,” one said.

In Marsa the serenity of clean streets, lined with shops and villas styled in Tunisia’s distinctive white and blue architecture, was punctured by the burned-out banks owned by Sakher Materi, Ben Ali’s son-in-law.

A beggar rummaged around in one branch as a funeral procession for a young man who died in the violence that accompanied Ben Ali’s ousting passed by.

A superstore owned by another of his sons-in-law stood empty further down the road.

“ARROGANT ATTITUDE”

Tanks and army vehicles surrounded the headquarters of the Ziytouna bank on the edge of Carthage. The suburb housed a training school for Ben Ali’s presidential security forces that now looked deserted.

In a poor neighbourhood nearby residents said Materi would regularly tear down their main road past them. “We only saw him come driving down this road in his Hummer. It was an arrogant attitude,” said Saleh, who is unemployed.

Tunisia saw a growing divide in recent years between the wealth of a small ruling elite and the suffering of ordinary Tunisians facing unemployment and rising prices.

Imed Trabelsi, a particularly unpopular brother of Ben Ali’s wife Leila, maintained a villa in a district nearby.

But the home of a man who inspired fear in locals just a week ago now stood abandoned, vandalised and destroyed.

Arabic graffiti on the walls insulted Ben Ali and his wife and praised Mohammed Bouazizi, the man who started the revolt off a month ago when he set himself on fire to protest against the culture of bribes and connections.

“Tunisia is free, Bouazizi is a hero,” it said. Someone had scrawled mockingly on the wall outside facing the street: “”The Trabelsi Family Museum.”

“This guy got into parliament without any cultural or political background. Where did he get all this from?” said a man who gave his name as Khumais. “My sister spent six years without a job after she graduated.”