Morocco pays final respects to late king
Morocco, Politics, 7/25/1999

The late king Hassan II was buried this Sunday afternoon in the Mohammed V mausoleum in Rabat after a moving funeral ceremony that took the late king's body from the royal palace.

An estimated 2 million mourning Moroccans, who have been gathering since the early hours of the morning to bid a last farewell to the beloved King, lined the streets of the capital to pay their final respects to the king who passed away on Friday at 70.

The coffin was placed on a military vehicle and the national anthem was chanted before the procession moved at 3.15 p.m from the royal palace to the Hassan mosque going through the main boulevards of the capital city where some two million persons cried the loss of their king.

After the prayers of the death were performed and after the late king was laid to rest alongside his father, King Mohammed V, the foreign officials then lined up to express their condolences to King Mohammed Ben Al Hassan, who had received the allegiance of the government, political parties, military and police officers Friday evening, few hours after the death of the late Hassan II was announced.

The foreign heads of state who were present at the funeral ceremony include:

From America: US president Bill Clinton and his spouse, General Governor of Canada, Michel le Blanc

From the Arab world: King Abdallah and queen Rania of Jordan, The emir of Bahrain Sheikh Hamad ben Issa Al-Khalifa, Crown prince and prime minister of Kuwait, Sheikh Saad al-Abdallah Al-Sabah, crown prince of Qatar Jassem Belhamad Al-Thani, Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Mauritanian president Mouaouyia Ould Sid Ahmed Taya, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Lebanese president, Emile Lahoud, Saudi defense minister, prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz, Yemeni president Ali Abdallah Saleh, Iraqi deputy-premier Taha Yassine Ramadan and foreign minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf, and Syrian vice-president Zouheir Macharka, MAP reported.

From Europe: King Juan Carlos and queen Sofia of Spain, King Albert of Belgium and Belgian foreign minister Louis Michel, French president Jacques Chirac and his spouse, Prince Charles of Britain, Crown prince of Norway Haakon, Princess Margriet -sister of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, French foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine, representing the French government, German President Johannes Rau, Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio, Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski, British secretary to the foreign office Robin Cook, President of the Swiss Confederation, Ruth Dreifuss, Speaker of the Austrian Parliament, Heinz Fischer, Speaker of the European Parliament, Nicole Fontaine, The European Union Envoy for the Middle-East, Miguel Moratinos,

From Africa: Senegalese President Abdou Diouf, South African president Thabo Mbeki, Cameroonian president Paul Biya, President of Equatorial Guinea, Theodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogoa

President of Cote D'Ivoire, Henri Konan Bedie, president of Guinea, Lansana Conte, president of Togo, Gnassingbe Eyadema, president of Benin, Mathieu Kerekou, president of Burkina Faso, Blaise Campaore, president of Gambia, Yahya Jammeh.

From the Middle East: a large Israeli delegation comprising president Ezer Weizman, prime minister, Ehud Barak, and foreign minister David Levy, Turkish president Suleyman Demirel, First vice president of Iran, Hassan Habibi.

From Asia: Prince Takamado, cousin of Japanese emperor Akihito, Pakistani president Mohamed Rafiq Tarar, Former Japanese prime minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, Speaker of the Council of the Russian federation (upper chamber of the parliament), Egor StroÐev, Prime minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina Wajed, Advisor to the People's Republic of China, Ismael Amal.

Were also present scores of other personalities and the heads of several international organizations including the United Nations, and the Arab League.

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