The flame of the People’s Movement of the Rif (Al Hirak al Chaabi, in Amazigh) went out. The embers are hidden in the houses of this northern Moroccan region. But they are fueled by the diaspora of activists in Europe, who say that the wave of protests in 2016 and 2017 has sown the ground for contestation to emerge in the future. “Hirak has left a very important collective consciousness. The foundations of the movement, which defends not giving in to a dictatorial regime, will bear fruit in future generations”, says Reda Benzaza, one of the promoters of the movement and a friend of its leader, Nasser Zefzafi.
This week, five years have passed since the sentences of 54 of its activists, on June 27, 2018, including Zefzati, Nabil Ahamjik and Samir Ighid, who are serving 20 years in a prison in Tangier, where there are also has Mohamed El Haki (15 years old), Zakaria Adahchour (15) and Mohamed Jelloul (10). The spokesmen of the movement outside Morocco take advantage of the date to demand amnesty, since they consider that they were imprisoned for demonstrating peacefully. In Catalonia, for example, they have the support of the Escarré International Center for Ethnic Minorities and Nations (Ciemen), which has brought a report on the region to the Catalan Parliament. “The violation of human rights in the Rif continues to be worrying and has fallen into oblivion. The Moroccan authorities continue to repress and harass activists and journalists for the peaceful exercise of their human rights,” says Ciemen.
The protests broke out in October 2016, after the death of the fish seller Mohcin Fikri, who was crushed inside a garbage truck when he tried to recover the goods that had been confiscated by the authorities. Benzaza, then a teacher at the Spanish high school in Alhucemas, lived ten meters from the scene. He took to the streets to demand justice for Fikri. Afterwards, the claims grew.
For eight months the streets of Alhucemas and nearby towns throb with hundreds of demonstrations. They demanded social, economic, health and cultural improvements for a territory historically marginalized by the central authorities and, moreover, militarized. They protested against abuse and abandonment. And they addressed the king directly, since they considered the Government and the political parties as part of the problem. They obtained some promises, but they were not the signed commitments they demanded, explains Benzaza, who, due to his command of languages, was the interlocutor with the international media. Almost the entire population of the Rif joined; some women even took on leadership roles, an “unheard of” fact, points out Saliha Ahouari, an activist from Rife living in Madrid. “When we saw our mothers leaving, we thought they couldn’t stop us”, remembers Bezaza. “But then came a repression that changed our lives”, he adds.
It was the most serious political crisis faced by Mohamed VI since he ascended the throne in 1999. The State responded with hundreds of arrests. Between 400, according to the official figure, and 1,200 individuals were prosecuted for participating in the protests, Ciemen’s report states. 129 minors were arrested, ten of whom ended up in prison. The detainees reported torture. “Nasser revealed before a court that he had been raped on the day of his arrest”, emphasizes Benzaza, who had to go into exile.
“In the last seven years the Rif has been emptied. The population of Alhucemas has been reduced by 60% due to the mass exodus to Europe”, laments Ahouari. “The arrivals of Rifenys with pastera have increased exponentially”, adds Benzaza, who advises migrants from the Association Pro Drets Humans d’Andalusia, in Málaga. “The Rif is in post-traumatic shock. There is a large presence of security forces and intelligence services. People have been arrested for giving a ‘like’ on Facebook. As for the economy, there are no opportunities”, portrays Benzaza.
Because of all this, the Rifen community abroad, very present in countries such as Spain, Holland and Belgium, keeps the struggle alive. “The strength of the movement is no longer in the Rif. Hope is in the diaspora”, remarks Benzaza, who has brought the cause to the institutions led by left-wing parties, although the response has been timid. “The position of the Rif conflict in the scale of political priorities in our country and in Europe has lost strength”, laments Ciemen. An exception was the approval by the European Parliament in January of a resolution against Morocco for not respecting rights. The immediate release of Zefzafi and the rest of the prisoners was demanded. The PSOE voted against it and the PP abstained. Pressure from Rabat was revealed.
