I Sadly Announce The Arrest of A Moroccan Blogger

The Moroccan Bloggers Association announced that on December 7, 2009, three days before the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Moroccan security forces arrested Bashir Hazam, a 26 years old blogger, for reporting on the violent suppressive operation the police and military forces conducted the previous week in the town of Taghjijt, in the Guelmim Province, against a group of university students who gathered to peacefully protest the flagrant lack of resources. The students attend Ibn Zohr University in Agadir, 156 miles away. They demanded among other things adequate public transportation, education funds to buy books for the local cultural center, and financial and material support to mitigate education cost (printing of term papers and dissertations). In Morocco, a country suffering from a chronic unemployment crisis, university students, most of whom hail from impoverished rural areas, are incapable of finding employment to support themselves; they rely on meager scholarships provided by the government to pay for lodging, food, transportation, and books. Many live in squalid quarters and subsist on minimal nourishment to pursue their education.

According to Hesspress, the Moroccan authorities in Taghjijt, adopting lessons learned from the June 2008 Sidi Ifni incident, conduct technical and physical surveillance on local internet cafés to prevent the dissemination of photographs of and witness reports on the student protest and the repressive actions of the police force. The authorities arrested anybody suspected of providing support to the students; one of those arrested is Abdullah Boukhou, owner of one of these internet cafés, who was charged with printing tracts.

Many other bloggers were among the students arrested, but Bashir Hazam is the only one detained for writing on the event. I visited his blog, but unfortunately, all his posts since Ramadan have been deleted. He is due to plead on December 14, 2009.

A little over a year ago, Utah Air National Guard, U.S. Marine Corps communication specialists, Navy dentists, and National Guard translators, accompanied by Moroccan military medical personnel, visited Taghjijt within the framework of the U.S. Defense Department’s State Partnership Program. They provided dental and optometric care to over 9000 local residents. It is ironic how the authorities are now trying to shut their mouths from speaking the truth and blind their eyes from seeing the reality.

A facebook page has been created to support Bashir Hazam and the students of Taghjijt.

UPDATE: Moroccan blogger Bashir Hazzem was sentenced to a four-month prison term for “spreading false information about human rights that undermined the kingdom’s image.” Internet cafe owner Abdullah Boukhou was charged with production with intent to distribut subversive fliers in support of the demonstrating students. He received a twelve-month jail sentence.

A. T. B. Copyright © 2009