WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- A slow breeze of change is drifting across Morocco, sweeping in long-awaited democratic reforms in this North African former French protectorate.
King Mohammad VI, who ascended to the throne July 30, 1999, when he succeeded his father King Hassan II, began making history as the atypical leader in the Greater Middle East Region. Intent on setting his own pace and bringing his own imprint, the new king wanted to avoid following in his father's footsteps.
He is diverging from strict policies put in place decades earlier by his father, King Hassan II. Mohammad has taken the unprecedented steps in authorizing the establishment of a Truth Commission given the task of unveiling past abuses in human rights and shedding light on the unlawful detention of thousands of political prisoners that occurred during his father's reign.
Taking the reform process a step further, Mohammad appointed Driss Benzekri, a former inmate to lead the Equity and Reconciliation Commission. Benzekri is a human rights activist and leader who spent 17 years as a political prisoner in one of Morocco's secret detention centers.
The establishment of such a commission is the first time such a task in undertaken in the Arab world following a period of internal strife. Neighboring Algeria, for example, where more than 100,000 civilians have been killed during the 1990s as radical Islamists fought the military when the government, fearing an Islamist victory in the polls, cancelled the elections. It has yet to acknowledge its martyrs.
And neither has Lebanon, where a 15-year civil war left more than 150,000 dead and as many wounded, attempted any real efforts toward national reconciliation. Instead, many Lebanese prefer to sweep those dark years under the rug and pretend nothing happened. The Lebanese have not even erected a single statue, or dedicated a single plaque to the memory of their 150,000 dead.
But Morocco chose to confront its problems and to face the ghosts of its past, which is unavoidable when reopening old sensitive wounds while they are still fresh in people's minds. But despite the heavy burden of an ugly past, reconciliation seems to have worked in South Africa, for example.
"The past is like a ball of iron, attached to one's leg," Ahmed Herzenni, a former political prisoner who spent 12½ years in detention for his affiliation with left-wing groups, told United Press International, using an analogy he must have been quite familiar during the dozen years he spent in jail.
Ignoring the political weight and the consequences that goes with revealing the truth of the dark years, Morocco and its new king followed through.
In their final report released Thursday, the commission found that between the 1950s and 1990s, "thousands of Moroccans were illegally detained, imprisoned, tortured, or forcibly disappeared by state actors," meaning officials of the government.
It was only after the new king replaced his father that he formally established in 2004 the first truth-seeking body in the Middle East and North Africa region: a 17-member commission charged with investigating human right abuses and to provide compensation to victims and their families.
The commission spent 18 months during which it received more than 22,000 applications for consideration and held victim-centered public hearings that were televised nationally.
The Equity and Reconciliation Commission -- or IER -- presented its final report to the Royal Palace on Nov. 30, 2005. Two weeks later, the king mandated the public dissemination of the several hundred-page report, marking a crucial moment in Moroccan history.
Determining the responsibilities of state and other actors for the years of abuses by the military, the police and the security forces, the commission outlined an extensive reparations plan for victims and their families. The commission's report set out concrete recommendations that provide Morocco with a momentous opportunity to advance victims' rights and prevent future abuses.
Since December 2003, the International Center for Transitional Justice has worked closely with the IER, providing ongoing technical assistance and advice, and has also actively engaged with Moroccan human rights organizations, the media, and victims' groups, stressing their role in monitoring the Commission and assisting victims.
"Morocco is in a phase of democratization," Herzenni, the former political prisoner, said. "It is guaranteed that we are in a new era."
Driss Benzekri, the commisssion's president told UPI, "We need to solve the problems of the past, all while looking towards the future."
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