Morocco Lifts Lid on Torture Cases, Abuse

Morocco Lifts Lid on Torture Cases, Abuse

By Gilles Trequesser

RABAT (Reuters) - In an unprecedented truth-seeking process in the Arab world, Morocco tried to blot out stains of past human rights abuses on Tuesday with public testimony about tortures and disappearances in the Muslim kingdom.



The hearings were broadcast live on national radio and television -- another first -- and held by a state body empowered to look into widespread abuses committed over a period of 43 years, from independence from France in 1956 to 1999.


The Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER) was tasked with investigating and documenting "grave" human rights abuses, notably during the 1960s and 1970s, a period under the rule of the late King Hassan known in Morocco as "the years of lead."


However, to avoid reviving old tensions there was no naming of names as participants were not allowed to identify individuals responsible for the violations.


Some of the torturers are believed to still hold high positions in the state apparatus, particularly in the military.


The IER said it received 22,000 files. About 200 people -- victims, relatives and witnesses -- were given an opportunity for up to 20 minutes each to present testimony and tell their tales of arbitrary detentions, disappearances or torture at the hands of security agents.


The hearings began at a government auditorium in the capital Rabat, with six witnesses speaking to an audience of 200 people as well as thousands of TV viewers and radio listeners. The hearings are scheduled to take place in 10 cities across the kingdom over a period of 10 weeks.


The six, five men and a woman in their 50s and 60s, spoke calmly and with dignity -- three of them from a prepared text -- of arbitrary arrests, long prison detentions without trial in abject conditions and of "strange, inconceivable tortures."


ASHES IN CAN OF SARDINES


El Ghali Bara, 62, was held for 15 years, mostly in a secret detention center, until 1991 when he received a royal pardon.


"One cannot describe the sufferings we endured, me and members of my family," he said, recalling how torturers put cigarettes out all over his body.


"The impact of these hearings ... will be enormous, not only in the country but throughout the region," said Hanny Megally, director for the Middle East and North Africa at the U.S.-based International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ).


For Rachid Manouzi, 53, the ultimate humiliation came when a prison guard told him: "You the Manouzis, I would've liked to torture you to death, burn you to ashes and seal those in a can of sardines." Manouzi was arrested at age 19 for no reason, held for one year before living in exile for 25 years.


Blessed with an image of moderation and long considered the most Western-oriented country in the Arab world, Morocco was ruled for 38 years until his death in 1999 by a monarch who relied on a ruthless security apparatus.


King Hassan, human rights groups and historians say, imprisoned thousands of perceived opponents, leftists, Islamists as well as real and imagined coup plotters.


Soon after ascending the throne, his reform-minded son, now 41, created a board that financially compensated 4,000 victims of past abuses.


The commission is expected to present a final report in April that will set out the reasons and institutional responsibilities for grave violations up to 1999.





But its statute was a disappointment for many human rights activists in Morocco who had lobbied for punishment of those responsible for torturing or killing political dissidents.

Witnesses must be allowed to give names of people responsible for past human rights violations, said Abdelilah Ben Abdeslam, a member of Morocco's main independent human rights group AMDH. "One can't talk about truth if these torturers still occupy cushy jobs in the state and in its institutions."

Manouzi agreed. "This is a first step before we can turn the page, but it will be incomplete as long as those responsible will be left out of trouble, and until they apologize."