More on the brutal repression in Sidi Ifni

A month ago I posted on how Morocco has been attacking Al Jazeera because of their coverage of the protests and repression in Sidi Ifni.

Image of the protests

Besides the informations of murders and rapes by the Moroccan police, it is clear is that 12 people were arrested and charged, including Brahim Sebaa Ellil, member of the Moroccan Center for Human Rights, who was sentenced to 6 months in prision and a fine of 50,000 dirhams on July 10, and Brahim Bara, Secretary General of ATTAC Morocco, who is still in jail. ATTAC, French acronym of Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions to Aid Citizens, is an international alterworldist organization that demands that international monetary transactions are taxed in order to curb speculation.

There is an online petition in four languages open to signature demanding the immediate liberation of Brahim Bara.

Source: La Haine (in Spanish).

Also there is the testimony of Maryam, a young woman arrested in the inccidents of Sidi Ifni, that I cannot but translate here:

It was the morning of Saturday June 7th, Maryam got out from her home for shopping. A policeman in the street insults her: "hoe, bitch!" She asks the policeman to moderate his language. Another agent then brings her to the police chief. He commands: "bring her where she gets fucked!" They bring her to the wall of the secondary school Mulay Ben Abdellah. There she watches 15 policemen brutally beating a young man. Then it comes her turn.

A policeman with his face covered beats her buttocks. When she stops yelling because she doesn't even feel the pain anymore, he beats her on the face and body. When she tries to cover her face another agent grabs her so his mate could continue the beating, that continues till she faints. Then a police car brings her to the police station.

At the gate she's brought out of the car through more beatings, they even threaten with breaking her galsses (Maryam is myopic). She cries that she had to sell a sheep to buy them. A policeman keeps her glasses and she's brought into the building.

Once inside humilliations begin: mockery and more mockery, they take off her clothes, they touch every corner of her body. Each time she tries to resist they beat her brutally. A policeman puts his baton between her legs. Up to 10 policemen abuse her sexually. In other rooms groups of women are forced to undress before the policemen with tehir husbands as witnesses. Many women that have gone through the police station have been abused that way, knowing the policemen that most won't say anything because of what implies in their society. In another room young men are forced to sit on bottles. The "good cop" finally appears and ask fogiveness for what they are doing to her.

A chief walks around the naked men and women. A young man asks to talk with the Caid of Agadir, claiming that he had arrived to Sidi Ifni to fullfill a mandate from the Caid and that is car is outside to prove it. The chief, arrogant, says: "We follow orders of King Mohammed VI. Is maybe your Caid more than the King himself?" Maryam remembers perfectly the face of who said that and claims that she would recognize him among thousands.

A policeman throws her to the floor, grabbing her neck with his legs. "If you move, I'll kill you". More beatings, abuses and humilliations.

They put a bandage on her eyes and bring her upstairs to interrogate her. For the first time she's not beaten. They take her data. They ask for her people, if she belongs to any organization, what ideas does she have, what does she think of the situation in Sidi Ifni. Then they bring her downstairs, take off the bandage and set her free.

At the exit a group of policemen surround her, insult her, beat her again. One yells: "The dick of the Makhzen is very long, bitch!" Never in her life Maryam heard so many insults nor so nasty ones.

June 7th will be recorded for long in the memory of the people of Sidi Ifni because of the savage behaviour of the Moroccan polcie forces commanded by General Laanigri, element that secures the continuity of the regime of Hassan II into that of Mohamed VI.

Policemen grabbing a baby from her mother