Morocco Human Rights Violations and Children Abuse History

In these days, Morocco is experiencing a state of social unrest because corruption, social neglect and human rights violations.

Since the independence of Morocco from France and Spain, Moroccan people suffered of kidnapping, massacre and torture from the previous regime of King Hassan II, hundreds of suspected regime opponents, including over 500 people of Western Saharan origin (Sahrawis) and over 100 Moroccans, have "disappeared" since the 1960s after being arrested by the Moroccan secret police . In 1991, after being held in many secret detentions like Tazmamart for up to 19 years in appalling conditions, more than 300 of these prisoners were released after an international campaign on human rights violations in Morocco. The Moroccan monarchy dictatorship had persistently denied holding any of the "disappeared". This chapter discusses the phenomenon of "disappearance" in Morocco and assesses some of the factors, including the Amnesty International campaign, which, in 1991, led to the releases of some of the "disappeared".

Tazmamart a slow death in darkness and isolation was part of the punishment. By the time of the 1991 releases, 31 out of 58 military men taken in 1973 to this secret prison died. This group, not strictly "disappeared" as the Moroccan Government never denied holding them, were taken from Kenitra Central Prison in 1973 and vanished into Tazmamart, a prison, whose existence, right up to the release of its inmates, was denied by the authorities. Even in September 1991, the month when the detainees were transferred from Tazmamart, the Moroccan Minister of the Interior stated on the radio that "Tazmamart only existed in the minds of evildoers". Twenty-seven members of the Moroccan military (all who were left alive out of the 58 transferred there in 1973) were also released from Tazmamart in 1991.

During the 1980s, there were allegations about the existence of a prison called Tazmamart. Moroccan Authorities were denying all of those allegations. It was not until the publication of the book Notre ami le Roi (Our friend the King) by French journalist Gilles Perrault in 1990 that the issue was raised at a political level. Thomas Miller, who at the time was -dir-ector for North African Affairs at the State Department, said in an oral history that he was contacted by American citizen Nancy Touil, who said her husband M’Barek Touil had been languishing in Tazmamart for nearly two decades. Miller inserted a talking point in the background papers for President George H.W. Bush for his 1991 meeting with King Hassan. Bush raised the issue, much to the King s dismay.
In 1991, and after pressure from international human rights groups and some foreign governments, King Hassan II decided to close down the prison and release the last remaining detainees. Some fled abroad others stayed in Morocco, but were prevented from discussing their experiences in Tazmamart publicly.

Hundreds of the "disappeared" remain unaccounted for some families continue, year after year, to make the rounds of prisons and to write to the King and his government. The Moroccan government denies knowledge of them just as, for years it denied secretly detaining the "disappeared" who were eventually released in 1991. Amnesty International believes that the majority of the "disappeared" may still be alive, hidden away in secret cells, some of detainees may be dead.
The Monarchy dictatorship in Morocco crackdowns on protesters: hundreds were killed and thousands arrested in connection with demonstrations in 1965 in Casablanca. Protest rioting became so intense during some years in the 1970s that tanks occasionally patrolled the streets of major Moroccan cities. Casualties among demonstrators occurred in Casablanca in 1981. In 1984 an undetermined number of people have been killed in a wave of demonstrations by students and workers in various parts of Morocco, Marrakesh, Rabat, Tetuan, Oujda and Nador. The Government of King Hassan II has imposed a total ban on any news of the reported protests. Little has appeared in the Moroccan press, although reports of riots in Marrakech, Rabat,Tetouan, Oujda and Nador.
The journalists had come to investigate reports that a riot in Nador had taken many lives and caused much property damage. Armored cars, helicopters and large numbers of troops were reported to have been involved.
One reporter, Jacques-Michel Tondre, a senior editor of the diplomatic staff of Agence France-Presse in Paris, was expelled from Morocco immediately on arrival. The departure of a flight bound for Marseilles was delayed to put Mr. Tondre aboard.

In another incident, this correspondent was first ordered to take the flight to France, and then was permitted to go to Casablanca instead.
In 1990 in Fez at least 33 people were killed in two days of rioting over the weekend in this old Moroccan city, hospital and morgue officials said today. The official toll, made public today after the second day of rioting, said 5 people had died and 127 were wounded. But hospital and morgue records reported that 13 people died
Also known as Temara secret detention center is an extrajudicial detainment and secret prison facility of Morocco located within a forested area about 15 kilometers from Rabat, Morocco. It is operated by the DST (-dir-ection de la Surveillance du Territoire), a Moroccan domestic intelligence agency implicated in past and ongoing human rights violations, continue to arrest, detain and interrogate individuals suspected of involvement in terrorism-related activities outside of the Moroccan legal framework.
Members of the DST are not considered to be part of the judicial police and as such should not arrest and hold suspects. Frequently reported methods of torture include beatings, the suspension of the body in contorted positions, and the threat of rape´-or-other sexual abuse of the detainees’ female relatives. Other reported methods include rape by the forced insertion of objects such as bottles into the anus, deprivation, cigarette burns, and the application of live electrodes to the body.

On January 6, 2006, King Mohammed VI expressed regret for the human rights abuses that had occurred during his father s reign and spoke of the need for lessons to be drawn from the past.

Human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have long been reporting on these human rights abuses in Morocco. The report of the UN Secretary-General of 28 July 2009 to the General Assembly took note of such reports. In addition, in 2006, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights conducted a mission to study the human rights situation in the region, although it did not officially publish the report based on its findings.

Thousands of Moroccans marched in the northern town of Al Hoceima to protest against injustice and corruption on May 30, 2017. Moroccan commando police kidnapped Nasser Zafzafi, the leader of the protest movement on May 29, 2017 that has shaken the country s northern Rif region for months, after a fishmonger was crushed inside a garbage truck there while trying to retrieve his fish confiscated by the police, Zafzafi’s head been covered and transported by a police helicopter from his town Al Houceima to Casablanca (700 Kilometers), the commando police beat him so hard in face and stomach. More than 70 activists were kidnapped as well.
The clearance police operations involved human rights violations against peaceful protesters including: extrajudicial excess use of force disappearances torture and other ill-treatment, and other crimes of sexual violence. According to the Amazigh world news and other human rights group observers that Silia Ziani and Nabil Ahamjik, two prominent figures of the ongoing protest in Rif region have been arrested one week after the kidnapping of their leader Zafzafi by the Moroccan police.

A large number and overall patterns of human rights violations and children abuses in the Rif, Western Sahara and other regions of Morocco including torture, disappearance and other cruel, inhuman´-or-degrading treatment´-or-punishment have already been well documented, while many more allegations require further investigation.

The Moroccan authorities organized a group of criminal’s record called (Baltajia) counter demonstrators giving them Moroccan flags and posters of the King with batons and rocks and has been created another group is called Young Royalists financially supported their job is to attempts to disrupt peaceful demonstration and attack the protesters who against the corruption and injustice of the monarchy dictatorship of Morocco.
The Moroccan dictatorial and corrupt monarchy regime is increasing detentions and maltreatment of children in North of Morocco, in the months of October and November of 2017 Moroccan force arrested 30 children under the age of 17 among them six children under the age of 10, they were beaten and tortured, accused of participating in peaceful protest s in Imouzern in the neglected Rif of Northern of Morocco. Journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers and their families were not allowed to attend police stations. The Moroccan government, as usual, either denied´-or-ignored the accusations. Their families were forced not to disclose any information about the arrest´-or-torture of their children by the security services.

Detainees are frequently tortured and are often not told the reason for their arrest´-or-where they are being taken. In the case of the minor detainees under 18, their parents are not usually allowed to accompany them´-or-be present during their interrogations. Often detainees are forced to sign confessions without anyone from their families´-or-a legal representatives being notified by the authorities. They are being maintained, tortured and threatened for political motives. The arrests of young people and children in Rif are part of a campaign of collective punishment to intimidate a whole generation, paralyzing them to stop their actively resistance to the Moroccan monarchy dictatorship and corrupt regime for its neglected region since the independence from Spain and the region of Rif been massacred by Moroccan military, they used German-manufactured toxic gas in their efforts to put down the Berber rebellion. Thousands of Moroccan military troops were sent to suppress the protests and within days it was brought to an end, with many dead´-or-arrested while hundreds of others fled to neighboring countries and Europe.

According to the testimony of the witnesses in Imouzern who are fear to be tortured and killed by Moroccan police to mention their names´-or-taking pictures´-or-recording statements: “Children beaten at the place of arrest before they been forced by officers to get into an armored van, they subjected to ill-treatment, and physical and verbal abuse whilst in the police car before being taken to the police headquarters in the city of Al Houcima”.

A mother of one of the arrested children approached to one of the officers and asked him please to leave the boy alone. The officers refused, and he replied to her: “we are going to take him somewhere to reeducate him”.

Some of the children liberated after they were subjected to physical torture and violence and psychological humiliating and degrading practices, which caused them injuries and bruises all over their body, mainly on their back of the body.

Under international law, any person under the age of 18 is a child, and children suspected of having committed a crime must be treated in accordance with the rules of the juvenile justice system and must be accompanied by a legal representative at all times.

The Monarchy dictatorial and corrupt regime in Morocco violates the United Nations (UN), in the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman´-or-Degrading Treatment´-or-Punishment (CAT) in 1984
Children experience various forms of torture such as physical torture, mental torture, and emotional torture. Often, children are tortured to punish communities´-or-their parents. Many children suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, anger, problems, difficulty concentrating, and symptoms of anxiety following experiences of torture.

The Moroccan government’s response to these documented violations has ranged from blanket denials of any wrongdoing by security forces to numerous attempts to discredit reports of abuses by eyewitnesses and survivors.

In this context, a wide campaign of international solidarity against repression would help isolate the monarchy dictatorial and corrupt regime of Morocco, is the creation of a vast movement of solidarity opinion of fighting for freedom and democratic for the Moroccan people. All activists and Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and all human rights activists in the Rif and around the world take the seriousness of the situation of these human rights violations under the Moroccan monarchy dictatorship regime.

Under the rule of the corrupt King Mohamed VI human rights and freedom of speech is always been violated with the excessive force during dispersal of demonstrations´-or-arrests, abduction and intimidation especially when the people protesting peacefully against seizing of mineral resources in secret gold mines which tons of gold being smuggled out of Morocco to Dubai and billions of Dollars has been smuggled to Panama, Switzerland and to other countries in Africa in form of investments and developments and looting of public money by the King Mohamed VI and his close friends in the government and parliament that neglecting the Moroccan people living in the poverty, marginalization, ignorance lack the basic infrastructure that can fit for human life such a healthcare, education, housing and other basic human social needs. Millions of young people unemployed cannot afford job, nepotism and corruption in all Moroccan administrations including the judicial system.

On December 24, 2017 thousands of people flocked to the streets of Jerada, (Eastern Morocco), after the death of two brothers during the flooding of an underground mining well, to denounce the social and economic neglect suffered by the region. According to local human rights activists a large number and overall patterns of human rights violations and abuses in the Rif, Western Sahara and other regions of Morocco including torture, disappearance and other cruel, inhuman´-or-degrading treatment´-or-punishment have already been well documented, while many more allegations require further investigation.
The Moroccan government’s response to these documented violations has ranged from blanket denials of any wrongdoing by security forces to numerous attempts to discredit reports of abuses by eyewitnesses and survivors.
The prohibition against torture and children abuse is a bedrock principle of international law, torture, as well as cruel, inhuman´-or-degrading treatment, and using any kind of violence, materials´-or-group against peaceful protesters including children´-or-journalists is banned at all times, in all places and it is against the international law.
The international community should take effective legislative measures to prevent any acts of torture against political prisoners and put more pressure on the Moroccan dictatorship and corrupt regime to respect the human rights, freedom of speech and free all the political prisoners.

The Moroccan monarchy dictatorship continues its neglect of its international obligations on human rights in the silence of its Western Allies included the USA, in exchange of mutual interests and corruption to high officials Hillary Clinton solicited a -$-12 million donation from a government that her State Department considered corrupt, then realized the “mess” it would cause in her presidential run, a newly leaked ¬email reveals.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco agreed to give the money to the Clinton Foundation, provided that it held a convention in his country in May 2015 with Clinton as the keynote speaker.
Just five days before Clinton would announce her candidacy. POLITICO, acting on a tip about the role of Clinton and the king in arranging the conference and a -$-1 million sponsorship from a Moroccan-government-owned phosphate company called OCP.
During the final presidential debate, before news of the Morocco donation leaked, moderator Chris Wallace asked Clinton about the alleged corruption of her family’s charity. She dodged the question and re-dir-ected to the Clinton Foundation’s work fighting AIDS and other diseases.

In conclusion the Moroccan monarchy dictatorship regime is corrupt and incapable of democratic reform.

The international community should take effective legislative measures to prevent any acts of torture against political prisoners and put more pressure on the Moroccan monarchy dictatorship regime to respect the human rights, freedom of speech and free all the political prisoners. The UN must deploy impartial observers to the region of Rif (Al Houciema and Imzouren) and the local prison Oukacha in Casablanca to ensure the protection of the human rights including arrested children and ensuring accountability for all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and the International Convention on the Rights of the Child during arrests and the brutal intervention against the peaceful protests.
The Moroccan monarchy dictatorship regime must be punished under the international laws of human rights violations and children torture and arrest for political motives.


External Links:
• Smuggled Gold from Morocco to Dubai:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/25/billion-dollar-gold-market-dubai-kaloti

• Money to Hillary Clinton:
https://nypost.com/2016/10/21/huma-on-hillarys-12m-morocco-fiasco-she-created-this-mess-and-she-knows-it/

• Morocco Human Rights 2016 Report by the US Department of State: https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/265724.pdf

• Human Rights Violations in the Western Sahara Report by Human Rights Watch:
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/countrychapters/morocco/western-sahara

• Morocco/ Western Sahara 2016/ 2017 Report by Amnesty International: https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/morocco/report-morocco/

• Amnesty International Report on Rif: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2017/08/morocco-dozens-arrested-over-mass-protests-in-rif-report-torture-in-custody/

• Morocco World News Report on Al Houceima: https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2017/09/228798/morocco-fires-back-human-rights-watch-report-al-hoceima-rif-hirak/

• Solidarity with the children of Rif Report by Mediapart (Edition du Matin/ France): https://blogs.mediapart.fr/libertejecristonnom/blog/110118/solidarity-children-rif-

This report has been drafted by Abe Skander, who is a US Citizen, born in Morocco and been witness of protesters massacre and arrest by the Moroccan forces under the rule of the dictator King Hassan II in Casblanca in March 1965, during the period of the crackdowns on protesters in 1965 when he was at the age of 12 years old, he was arrested by the Moroccan Auxiliary Forces and been beaten in the local jail.

January 12, 2018

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