For an informative purpose and with no aim to analyze the act of self-immolation since I’m not a specialist, the purpose of this post is to list some cases of self-immolation that took place in  Morocco, and which I believe they have not received the attention they deserve from Institutional media, neither the official nor the independent one, since  the official Moroccan press agency (La MAP) makes a great effort to take each case of self-immolation out of its real context, usually by associating the act of self-immolation with psychological disorder.  

It seems that after the sad occasion of the death of the Tunisian martyr of the Arab Spring, Muhammad Bouazizi, when he self-immolated himself, self-immolation turned to be a trend in the Arab world. It is perhaps the latest innovation in the culture of protest among Arab desperate youths seeking to liberate themselves from their hard living conditions in their countries. In morocco the list of those who fall within this category is too long. A number of self-immolation attempts have been committed so far — some of which took place even before December 17, 2010 when Bouazizi set himself on fire — within different context. Here are most of the recorded cases:

1.        April 14, 2001: a man tried to set fire on himself in front of the city council of Saadia as he hasn’t received his monthly salary from the company he works for.

2.       November 28, 2007: an unemployed university graduate, holder of royal letters of employment set himself on fire in front of the parliament to protest against the failure of officials to activate the royal instructions and the decisions taken by the government in order to recruit unemployed graduates.

3.       June 1, 2010: a group of three unemployed university graduates set themselves on fire in front of the parliament.

4.       January 21, 2011: a citizen from the city of Casablanca set himself on fire.  The Moroccan official press agency (la MAP) reported that the man was suffering family problems that have to do with inheritance.

5.       January 19, 2011: the 23 years old, Issam Boustani, attempted to set himself on fire after he was eliminated from joining the Auxiliary Forces.

6.       January 21, 2011: Mbarek Smiri, a 46 years old street vendor from the city of Beni Mellal, tried to set himself on fire in the municipality, after he got tired of the repetitive promises from officials to receive a small shop they promised him, in a local market.

7.       February 2, 2011: a young Moroccan teacher set himself on fire during a sit in by teachers front of the Ministry of Education in Rabat, demanding their integration as formal teachers.

8.      February 10, 2011 Murad Rahho, from benguerir (72 km from Marrakech), set himself on fire after he was discharged from the Moroccan army and died two days after that.

9.       February 11, 2011 Couali Mohammed, a 27 years old man from the city of Taza, set himself on in the Court of First Instance because of problems related to a fast food snack to express his denial of the decision taken by the court, which he thought it was not fair.

10.   February 21, 2011: A citizen from the city of Tan-Tan set himself on fire in front of the prefecture, to protest against ill-treatment from an official.

11.    February 21, 2011 Fadwa Laroui, a young woman from the city of Fkih Ben Salah, set herself on fire in front of the municipality to protest against the destruction of her shack by local authorities that let her homeless with two children. Fadwa died on.

12.   May 9, 2011: Rachid, a young man selling cigarettes in retails in the place of Hay Mohammadi in Casablanca, died after setting himself on fire after he was assaulted and humiliated by a woman and her husband. 

13.   June 17, 2011: Salem Alaoui, a man in his fifties, from the region of Sebt Gzoula (near the city of Safi), father of three children, set fire on himself to protest against the crackdown by local authorities.

14.   July 31, 2011: a police officer in the city of Khribga set himself on fire in front of the regional administration of the police on (Throne day). The police officer was a subject to harassment and humiliation by his superiors after he discovered a number of abuses in the police station where he works. 

15.    August 7, 2011 Hamid Kenouni, a citizen from the city of Berkan, set himself on fire in front of the main police station in the city, after he was insulted and humiliated by a police officer and another official. Hamid died on 8 August 2011.

By Zakaria Rmidi

Part of the security forces that intervened to break up the protesters on the 22nd of May in Sbata

      Sunday, May 29 was the announced day by the February 20^th movement to take to the streets one more time, after a series of manifestations and marches all across the Kingdom of Morocco. In Casablanca, the city where I live currently, the Feb 20 movement decided to organize the protest march in the street of Commandant Driss Al Harti in the neighborhood of Sbata. The choice of this popular area for a second time came as a reaction from the movement to the failure of the previous protest march which took place on the 22^nd of May in the same place. The failure was mainly due to the violent intervention by the anti-riot police to break up the march, even before it started at 6 o’clock, as it was planned. The result was dozens of wounded people among the protesters and the arrest of more than 40 of them in addition to creating a state of fear and terror among the peaceful inhabitants of the neighborhood of Sbata. This was not something I read somewhere or someone told me about, rather something that I myself witnessed as the distance between me and one of the policeman’s club was only a few inches before I escaped it.

      In a communiqué of press, the government spokesman, Khalid Naciri, told Reuters: “Authorities had to deal with people who use the February 20 Movement to serve the agenda of three groups,” meaning the leftist Democratic Approach party, the Islamism group Justice and Charity, and the Salafist Jihadi group. “Islamists and extreme leftists were seeking to spread unrest under the guise of democracy protests,” he added.  

      For the Feb 20 movement the failure of the protest was big disappointment as protesters were supposed to march peacefully holding slogans and chanting their demands in the street of Driss Al Harti. Some activists in the movement believe that the 22^nd of May was a bloody day and a serious setback after the monarch’s speech on the 9^th of March in which he gave start to extensive constitutional reforms and emphasis to strengthening public liberties.  

      This Sunday 29^th May the same scenario was repeated with an over exposition of power and violence on the part of the authorities. Because I lived in Sbata for more that 20 years and because I sympathize with the Feb 20 movement, I was very excited about joining the march in my fourth participation since the first manifestation on February 20^th.  Sunday morning when I logged into my Facebook account at 12 o’clock — and without asking — a friend of mine like he jumped and said: “Zakaria, I was out for a walk and I noticed there are many secret police and the worst is that some inhabitants are going to submit complaints at the police station against the Feb 20 movement”. Later, when we arrived to the neighborhood we realized that local authorities represented by “mukadem” and “sheikh” (very low officials) were asking shop keepers and cafés owners to do that claiming that their commercial interests were damaged because of the previous protest. Local authorities as I know from my friends who live in the neighborhood were also asking those people to display signboard on their shops on which they wrote, addressing the Feb 20 movement: “get out of our neighborhood”, “who asked you to speak on our behalf”, “don’t get into our affairs” and such. 

      Another friend of mine contacted me at about 4 o’clock and we decided to meet around my house to go together to the place where the protest march is supposed to take place. The nearer we were getting from the place of the protest the huger the number of the security forces became. They were composed from the hawks group, anti-riot forces, auxiliary forces, traffic police, and secret police, all armed with different kinds of sticks including electric batons and wearing lead aprons.

      As we arrived at about half passed four we decided to walk around the place as my friend also spent part of his childhood in the neighborhood of Sbata and both of us were having a nostalgic affect to explore the neighborhood and bring to mind some memories. We visited another friend and we became three walking across the main streets of Sbata before we sat to chat over a cup of coffee in the street of Ouad Eddahab. We discussed different things related to Feb 20 movement and every one of us was voicing his opinion from his own standpoint. At 6 o’clock we decided to walk down towards the street of Driss Al Harti. As we got near from the street we found that different groups from the security forces have blocked roughly all the allies that take to the street. This brought about several groups of protesters marching in various places near from the street of Driss Al Harti and chanting: “Morocco is my free land. The makhzen must get out of it”, “we are asking a parliamentary monarchy”, “we don’t want a given constitution”, “the people want to overthrow tyranny” in addition to other demands which call for social and economic change.

       Despite the interventions of the security forces several times to break up the protesters by attacking them by cars, clubs, and motorcycles the protesters tried to meet around the angle of the street of November the 6^th and Driss Al Harti so that the march becomes larger. As they met there, the security forces ran out of patience and started beating everyone including the inhabitants of the neighborhood who were peacefully watching what was going on. The police intervention soon turned out to be a cat-and-mouse game; a bunch of protesters here and another one there while the security forces were running after them zanga zanga. The result was too heavier this time; in addition to the dozens of wounded people who got serious injuries and did not got any medical certificates from public hospitals which justify their injuries, a serious violation of human rights, women’s rights and children's rights and the right to demonstrate was committed by the Moroccan authorities.

      This is one of the videos that shows the aggressive intervention by the authorities.