- TILILA a écrit:
- Creatori a écrit:
Quoi tu veux dire que tu es pour une revolution au maroc ??! Ais du courage pour le dire ! 
tu es contre le regime ?
من تأخر عن موعد السفر لا تقبل منه شكاية 
Plus sérieusement :
c'est plutôt le contraire Morocco - making changes to avoid revolutionMaking changes to avoid revolution Published on : 28 March 2012 - 4:37pm | By International Justice Tribune
What is unique about Morocco in the Arab world is its
use and promotion of ’transitional justice’ tools. They were introduced
under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, in order to deal with the
dark years of repression during the cold war.By *Pierre Hazan, GenevaBut there is vibrant debate in Morocco about the effectiveness and
impact of these tools. Is it a sign of democratic change or just a
window-dressing exercise?
The list of measures introduced over the last fifteen years or
currently planned in Morocco is impressive. In 1999, under the auspices
of Mohammed VI, the Independent Commission of Arbitration was created
to offer reparations to the victims of forced disappearances. Some
7,780 former prisoners received the equivalent of a total of $100
million. In 2004, the king, by royal decree, established the first ever
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in the Arab World.
Its ambitious mandate was to deal with the wrongs of the past,
committed from Independence in 1956 to 1999, in particular under the
reign of Hassan ll (1962-1999), the father of the current king. Twenty
thousand victims gave testimony, some of them evoking graphic details
of their ordeals in six public hearings, widely covered by the media.
For many Moroccans, it was the first time they could listen in public,
to the extent of the repression in their country during the 1960s and
‘70s - and to a lesser degree, the 1980s.
The 2006 report which put an end to the Truth Commission,
recommended the regime undertake ambitious reforms, such as giving an
effective role to parliament, granting real independence to the
judiciary and real authority to the government. As the king’s advisors
were more powerful than the ministers, the commission recommended
circumscribing the power of the king, who under article 23 of the
constitution, was considered as “sacred,” retaining political, military
and spiritual power as Sharif of Mecqua, descendant of the prophet
Mohammed. But little has been done to implement these recommendations.
The list of recommendations is impressive, ranging from a truth
commission to different kinds of reparation, involving measures
regarding the right to truth, reparation and the guarantee of
non-repetition. It’s even more impressive when the Moroccan situation
is compared with Algeria, Syria, Libya or Egypt, where human rights
violations occur on a much wider scale.
Fundamental disagreementSo, why is there no consensus in Morocco on this set of transitional
justice measures? Why is there such a deep divide between those who
celebrate the ‘Moroccan model’ and want to export it to the rest of the
Arab world - and the critical voices? The simple answer is: the
fundamental disagreement over the nature of the Moroccan transition,
which lies at the heart of the debate.
Supporters of the model in Morocco believe the transition to
democracy has accelerated under Mohammed VI and that the country is
moving from an autocratic to a more liberal regime, diffusing the
concentration of powers (political, military, spiritual and economic)
from the hands of the king and the makhzen, his inner circle.
Avoiding the Algerian scenarioStill, according to this analysis, the gradual transformation from
an executive monarchy to a more democratic monarch is a careful
approach which has been able to progressively marginalise hard-liners
and the most conservative elements of the old guard -who had vested
economic interests in keeping the status quo. In that respect, this
‘small steps’ policy has been effective in avoiding the dramatic
evolution à l’algérienne of the 1990s, when 200,000 people were
slaughtered in the confrontation between the army and the Islamists.
According to this view, Mohammed VI has introduced a new family code
which provides equal rights for women, important transitional justice
measures and more recently, a new constitution approved by more than
98% of the population in July 2011, in which the Berber minority gained
cultural rights. Also, the Prime Minister has to be selected from
within the largest political party and will no longer be named by the
king according to his own choosing. This view promotes the
transformation of the Consultative Comity of Human Rights into a
constitutional organ called the National Comity of Human Rights,
strengthening democratic safeguards as additional proof of the reality
that Morocco is at the forefront of democratic change in the Arab world.
Cosmetic measures?The other perspective is radically different and is held, among
others, by the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH). According
to this view, these measures have been merely cosmetic, serving only
one purpose: to give national and international legitimacy to the new
king by projecting the image of a progressive, modern and caring
monarch. Fouad Abdelmoumni of AMDH encapsulates the criticisms: “the
fundamental question is whether reparations and transitional justice
measures are triggering a dynamic process of political and social
transformation – or whether they inhibit such a dynamic. If the State
wants to repair the past and avoid repetition, it has to accept full
responsibility by sanctioning those responsible for the repression. But
it is far from ready to do that.”
These critical voices point out deficiencies in the measures. The
fact that the 1999 Independent Commission of Arbitration didn’t fulfill
its mandate, not daring to explore the full extent of forced
disappearances and offering reparations under opaque criteria. They
stress that as the TRC was established a few months after the 2003
Casablanca bombings, it provoked the arrest of thousands of Islamists
under an anti-terrorist law which doesn’t guarantee fundamental rights
and that some were tortured.
These critical voices acknowledge the 2004-2006 TRC did a much
better job than the 1999 Independent Commission of Arbitration. But
they nevertheless point out the limitations under which the TRC
operated: the right to justice was impossible to obtain and even the
right to truth was limited. For instance, one of the conditions for the
victims to testify publicly was they would not reveal the names of
those who arrested and tortured them. Moreover, some politically
sensitive cases of historical significance, such as the kidnapping and
murder of high-profile Third World leader and socialist Ben Barka, were
never properly investigated.
Diffuse internal tensionsBut there are elements that no one disputes: the king has been
tactically astute in using ’transitional justice’ tools to project a
dynamic image of Morocco internationally, and to a certain degree,
diffuse internal tensions. But that won’t be enough to cope with social
problems: a quarter of the population living below the poverty line,
thirty per cent illiterate and the brain drain to the US and the EU.
Only time can tell whether the ‘small steps’ approach will vindicate
the believers in the reality of the democratic process - or the deeply
sceptical observers.
*Pierre Hazan is a lecturer in political science, Geneva (Judging War, Judging History, Stanford University Press, 2011)
Mar 3 Avr 2012 - 19:45
