So what had really started the unrest in Tunisia?

Here is an article:

[link to www.bbc.co.uk]

...A desperate act by a young unemployed man on 17 December triggered a much wider series of protests and clashes with the police.

Mohamed Bouazizi set fire to himself when officials in his town prevented him from selling vegetables on the streets of Sidi Bouzid without permission.

This set off protests about jobs in the town, which has an agriculture-based economy in one of the poorest regions of the country....