Abdelhamid Amine is a very brave man.
For awhile, it looked as if Mohammed VI was going to break with his father's legacy (see Notre ami, le roi, by Perrault) and work to right past wrongs against the various declared enemies of the palace. But now, with the rise of Islamicists (mainly the Salafist) and increased incidents of terrorism within the kingdom, Mohammed VI is listening to his advisors and allowing the Americans (who have had bases in Morocco)to send "suspects" for questioning in all likelihood, in a center in Temara, near Rabat.
People such as Binyam Mohamed, end up there and things like this happen:
a little thing called strappado torture where you are hung by your wrists for hours while someone (or several someones) use a scalpel to make little cuts all over, including your genitals.
This is disturbing on many levels, but I find it especially disturbing because Mohammed VI seemed to be on the right track: reforming the Moroccan government, holding clean elections, reforming the moudouana, paying attention to neglected corners of the kingdom, fostering a more open society.
But back to Abdelhamid Amnine:
(read the rest)
These are the words of a very brave man.
Morocco must not allow the US to tempt it back down a path it seemed to have been ready to turn away from, and the American people must not turn a blind eye to rendition and torture, lest they make the morally bankrupt vision of this administration the coin of the land.
"The United States justifies all this in the name of its war against terrorism. But we, as the defenders of human rights in Morocco, cannot accept that in the name of the war on terror you can also violate human rights or practice the terrorism of torture."There has been at least one account of Morocco's secret services torturing for the US. It is very disappointing to see that Morocco, too, has fallen under the spell of US outsouring. On the other hand, it is not as if the US is playing Svengali here. Morocco has committed horrific human rights abuses in the past and hundreds of people have gotten hauled off in the name of insulting the dignity or this or that entity (like the time the head of the Human Rights group in Tangiers got picked up by the goon squad the second he stepped off the set of Lika'a- right after criticizing the police for creating problems for Tangiers tourist and fishing trades by their over-zealous campaign against narcotics and smuggling). And then there are the (hopefully) former detention centers in Casablanca and Rabat from which locals claim to have heard screams and moans wafting over the walls. There was also one incredible horrendous place, Tazmamart Prison, in Southern Morocco, which has now been destroyed.
For awhile, it looked as if Mohammed VI was going to break with his father's legacy (see Notre ami, le roi, by Perrault) and work to right past wrongs against the various declared enemies of the palace. But now, with the rise of Islamicists (mainly the Salafist) and increased incidents of terrorism within the kingdom, Mohammed VI is listening to his advisors and allowing the Americans (who have had bases in Morocco)to send "suspects" for questioning in all likelihood, in a center in Temara, near Rabat.
People such as Binyam Mohamed, end up there and things like this happen:
“They cut off my clothes with some kind of doctor's scalpel. I was totally naked. They took the scalpel to my right chest. It was only a small cut, maybe an inch. At first I just screamed.
a little thing called strappado torture where you are hung by your wrists for hours while someone (or several someones) use a scalpel to make little cuts all over, including your genitals.
This is disturbing on many levels, but I find it especially disturbing because Mohammed VI seemed to be on the right track: reforming the Moroccan government, holding clean elections, reforming the moudouana, paying attention to neglected corners of the kingdom, fostering a more open society.
But back to Abdelhamid Amnine:
"The United States, which declares itself a democratic country, must recognise that these so-called black sites exist and that torture goes on there," he said.
"The United States justifies all this in the name of its war against terrorism. But we, as the defenders of human rights in Morocco, cannot accept that in the name of the war on terror you can also violate human rights or practice the terrorism of torture."
(read the rest)
These are the words of a very brave man.
Morocco must not allow the US to tempt it back down a path it seemed to have been ready to turn away from, and the American people must not turn a blind eye to rendition and torture, lest they make the morally bankrupt vision of this administration the coin of the land.
