The Moroccan State VS the Feb 20 Movement: Since when Violence has been the Solution?

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.