Moroccan riot police forcibly dispersed yesterday a concentration of dozens of people calling for political change in Casablanca, and then grouping them stopped outside the headquarters of a party, according to associations and witnesses said. Dozens of protesters who had been expelled from a central square in Casablanca when they tried to hold a rally later gathered outside the headquarters of the Unified Socialist Party (PSU), where the police intervened again.
According to official sources quoted by the MAP agency, at least seven protesters and an agent of the security forces were lightly injured in the clashes, while an undetermined number of the approximately 200 demonstrators were arrested and later released. Just hours earlier, the Moroccan Human Rights Association (AMDH) reported that the police pickets had also left injured and arrested.
The demonstrations are the first of its kind in Casablanca on Wednesday after King Mohammed VI announced a comprehensive constitutional reform, involving greater powers to the prime minister and the recognition of justice as an independent power and new powers for Parliament. However, the protesters showed their disagreement with the constitutional revision and called for the development of a new constitution and the dissolution of Parliament.
The AMDH said in a statement condemned "this vicious attack against peaceful demonstrators who denies the false slogans." For its part, the outlawed Islamist organization Al Adl wal Ihsan (Justice and Charity), several of whose members participated in the demonstration, reported that security forces "prevented citizens from accessing the point" where they had planned to start protest.
In a statement issued by the spokesman of this organization, Hasan Bennajeh, Islamists believed that the police action runs counter to the king's speech, "in which it said would open the door to political rights, including protest and demonstration. " AMDH sources added that there were also clashes in the nearby town of Mohammedia when dozens of people trying to hold another demonstration, and police arrested an unspecified number of protesters.
February 20th Movement, which emerged at the initiative of a few young people through social networking site Facebook, plans to hold mass demonstrations in the Moroccan cities on Sunday 20 March. 
According to official sources quoted by the MAP agency, at least seven protesters and an agent of the security forces were lightly injured in the clashes, while an undetermined number of the approximately 200 demonstrators were arrested and later released. Just hours earlier, the Moroccan Human Rights Association (AMDH) reported that the police pickets had also left injured and arrested.
The demonstrations are the first of its kind in Casablanca on Wednesday after King Mohammed VI announced a comprehensive constitutional reform, involving greater powers to the prime minister and the recognition of justice as an independent power and new powers for Parliament. However, the protesters showed their disagreement with the constitutional revision and called for the development of a new constitution and the dissolution of Parliament.
The AMDH said in a statement condemned "this vicious attack against peaceful demonstrators who denies the false slogans." For its part, the outlawed Islamist organization Al Adl wal Ihsan (Justice and Charity), several of whose members participated in the demonstration, reported that security forces "prevented citizens from accessing the point" where they had planned to start protest.
In a statement issued by the spokesman of this organization, Hasan Bennajeh, Islamists believed that the police action runs counter to the king's speech, "in which it said would open the door to political rights, including protest and demonstration. " AMDH sources added that there were also clashes in the nearby town of Mohammedia when dozens of people trying to hold another demonstration, and police arrested an unspecified number of protesters.
February 20th Movement, which emerged at the initiative of a few young people through social networking site Facebook, plans to hold mass demonstrations in the Moroccan cities on Sunday 20 March.
- quick visit - Guatemala City, Guatemala (18/02/2011)
- We continue.../Nos continuamos... (27/11/2010)
- La Protesta - Puerto Natales, Chile (07/03/2011)
- GUEST POST: One University of Puerto Rico Student Speaks About the Crisis and Violence (12/03/2011)
- To Save Space - Shower in the Living Room? (13/03/2011)
No comments:
Post a Comment