Human Rights Watch Report 2011: Moroccan human rights violations in Western Sahara

Events of 2010

In 2010 human rights conditions in Morocco and Western Sahara were mixed, and in some aspects, decidedly poor. The government used repressive legislation and complaisant courts to punish and imprison peaceful opponents, especially those who violated taboos and laws against criticizing the king and the monarchy, questioning Morocco's claim over Western Sahara, or "denigrating" Islam.

The government particularly restricts rights in the restive Western Sahara region, over which Morocco claims sovereignty, and which it administers as part of its national territory. A Western Sahara independence movement based in exile, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguía al-Hamra and Río de Oro (the Polisario Front), demands a public referendum that includes the option of independence. Over the years the Moroccan authorities have imprisoned many peaceful advocates of this position while instead proposing autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty.

Police Conduct and the Criminal Justice System

The authorities jailed prominent nonviolent pro-independence Sahrawi activists Ali Salem Tamek, Brahim Dahane, and Ahmed Naciri after arresting them on October 8, 2009. Four other Sahrawi activists arrested at the same time were later released pending trial. The police arrested the seven upon their return from an unprecedented public visit with the Polisario leadership in the Sahrawi refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria. A Casablanca judge initially referred the case against the seven to a military court on the grounds that the alleged offenses included harming "external state security" by "causing harm to Morocco's territorial integrity," but nearly one year later the military judge sent the case back to civilian court on the lesser charge of "harming [Morocco's] internal security." The trial opened on October 15 and was immediately postponed as three of the defendants entered their second year in provisional detention.

Sahrawi students Abdellah Daihani and Ali Toumi left prison in April after serving six months for "insulting state institutions." Their offense consisted of proclaiming that they recognized neither the Moroccan police nor the state during a political argument with other passengers on a train.

Freedoms of Association, Assembly, and Movement

Morocco boasts thousands of independent associations, but government officials arbitrarily impede the legalization of some organizations, undermining their freedom to operate. Groups affected include some that defend the rights of Sahrawis, Amazighs (Berbers), sub-Saharan immigrants, and unemployed university graduates, as well as charitable, cultural, and educational associations whose leadership includes members of Justice and Spirituality, a nationwide movement that advocates for an Islamic state and questions the king's spiritual authority.

The government, which does not recognize Justice and Spirituality as a legal association, tolerated many of its activities but prevented others. On June 28 the police arrested seven movement members in Fez after an ex-member claimed they had abducted and tortured him. According to the suspects, the police tortured them and forced them to sign confessions without reading them first. A medical examination conducted on one of the defendants noted that he had injuries that seemed to coincide with his period in police custody. The seven men are on trial for abduction and torture at this writing.

Authorities generally do not hamper the activities of foreign human rights groups visiting Morocco. Surveillance is tighter in Western Sahara, although authorities in El-Ayoun eased the requirement they imposed in 2009 that foreigners notify them before visiting Sahrawi activists at home.

Sahrawi activists enjoyed more freedom to travel abroad than in 2009, with fewer reports of authorities confiscating or refusing to renew their passports or preventing them from boarding flights.

Most types of outdoor gatherings require authorization from the Interior Ministry, which can refuse permission if it deems them liable to "disturb the public order." Although many public protests run their course undisturbed, baton-wielding police have brutally broken up some demonstrations. Among the most frequent targets are the protests organized across the country by chapters of the National Association of Unemployed University Graduates. For example, on March 31, security forces charged and dispersed a sit-in by the association in Nador, injuring several and briefly detaining four of the organizers.

In early October several thousand Sahrawi residents of El-Ayoun, Western Sahara, erected a tent camp outside the city to dramatize a list of economic grievances. Authorities negotiated with camp leaders but early on November 8 ordered the protesters to leave and then dismantled their tent city by force, using mostly water cannons and tear gas. They encountered some violent resistance and there were casualties among the security forces and civilians. Sahrawis in the city of El Ayoun erupted in protest the same day, with further casualties on both sides, including scores of Sahrawi men and women whom the police beat brutally while in custody. At this writing Human Rights Watch is investigating these events.

Media Freedom

Morocco's independent print and online media investigate and criticize government officials and policies but face prosecution and harassment when they cross certain lines. The press law includes prison terms for "maliciously" spreading "false information" likely to disturb the public order or for speech that is defamatory, offensive to members of the royal family, or that undermines "Islam, the institution of the monarchy, or territorial integrity," that is, Morocco's claim on Western Sahara.
The independent, provocative Arabic daily Akhbar al-Youm was reborn as Akhbar al-Youm al-Maghrebiya after a court shut the newspaper down on October 30, 2009 for publishing a cartoon that depicted a cousin of King Mohammed VI in an allegedly disrespectful fashion. However, the narrow field of serious independent news media lost key publications in 2010 with the closures, for financial reasons, of Nichan and Le Journal weeklies and al-Jarida al-Oula daily. The latter two had in recent years been the object of numerous prosecutions, some of them politically motivated, for defamation and other offenses.

Moroccan state television provides some room for investigative reporting but little for direct criticism of the government or for dissent on key issues. In May the Ministry of Communication announced that foreign stations, which have a large viewership in Morocco, must obtain authorization before filming outside the capital. The ministry refused for the second straight year to accredit two local Al Jazeera correspondents without providing a reason and then, on October 29, announced the suspension of the channel's activities in Morocco on the grounds that the channel "seriously distorted Morocco's image and manifestly damaged its greater interests, most notably its territorial integrity," an apparent allusion to Western Sahara.

Human Rights Watch