20110218
reuetrs

TUNIS (Reuters) - Near an olive grove on the outskirts of Tunisia's seaside capital, men stack walls of bricks on muddy earth and fasten roofs of tin and plastic against the wind-blown rain.

They are a few of the Mediterranean country's many poor who have become squatters since an uprising toppled the president -- making use of post-revolution confusion to build on public land and move into vacant or half-completed buildings.

"Ben Ali's regime stole everything. They had no heart and ignored us poor," said one of the men, who identified himself only as Khaled, 57. "Now we are here for all to see, and we hope the new government will help us."

The caretaker government has warned the growing number of squatters they could be prosecuted, though there has been little police presence in this once-popular tourist destination since President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted last month.

North Africa's smallest nation descended into turmoil in January after the suicide of a poor vegetable seller sparked a wave of demonstrations that led Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia and encouraged a similar revolution in Egypt.

Protests have also sprung up elsewhere in the Arab world, including Libya, Yemen and Bahrain.

"We are worried the police will come, but we hope they will help us, instead of taking all that we have," said a woman at the encampment in Tunis's Mnihla neighbourhood, who asked not to be named. She said she had sold most of her possessions for the bricks and cement for her shelter.

"I have five children, and I want to keep them off the streets," she said. "We are Tunisian, this is our country, where do they think we should go?"