Former detainee Abdellah Aaqaou calls for turning the page of human rights violations in Morocco

Abdellah Aaqaou, who was detained in the Tazmamart center, called in his testimony during the 2nd session of the public hearings held, on Wednesday, in Rabat by the Justice and Reconciliation Commission (IER), for turning the page of human rights violations in Morocco and for involving all the components of the civil society in order to promote a sound and abuse-free atmosphere of co-existence.

Aaqaou, former officer of the Armed Air Forces, recounted the sufferings he sustained with other co-detainees in Tazmamart, after being sentenced in August 1972 to three years in jail by the military court of Kenitra for involvement in the coup attempt of August 16, 1972.

The failed putsch was led by general Mohamed Oufkir, then defense minister, Amekrane, deputy-commander of the Royal Armed Forces, and Mohamed Kouira, commander of the Air Force. Born on April 14, 1947, Aaqaou, who was detained for 18 years, and was held successively in the central prison of Kenitra (starting on August 7, 1973), and then in the secret detention center of Tazmamart, said his friends and himself were transported in "inhuman conditions" and put in dark and stinking jails in the center.

Aaqaou, who was released on October 29, 1991, also stressed that prisoners were given five litters of water a day each and meals that "even the center director's dogs refused to eat," adding that when he and his 58 inmates decided to go on hunger strike in order to have their status as humans recognized, they were denied food for eight days.

After the nightmare and the cruelty in which the torturers excelled, some prisoners got sick made and their health seriously deteriorated, he went on, stressing that one of the prisoners who died in detention was buried as they were watching. "After noting the numerous cases of death, we finally realized that there were other detainees in the building next to us, where the military involved in the coup of 1971 in Skhirat were held"

In 1981-82, the group of detainees to which Aaqaou belonged managed to send outside the prison some letters related to their secret detention, he said, noting that when representatives of Amnesty International visited Morocco to inquire about the issue, Moroccan authorities flatly denied the existence of the Tazmamart detention center.

Aqaou also recounted the death of one his inmates in atrocious conditions after a six-year-long illness during which his body decomposed and emitted a suffocating smell, adding that the guards did not hesitate to give the detainees the DTT insecticide which they claimed would alleviate the sufferings of the agonizing man.

After detainees felt that there were plans to bury them alive in mass graves to erase any trace of their passage and of the existence of the Tazmamart center, they started to send letters to international human rights organizations, until the decision to release them was taken in 1991.

Aaqaou also recounts the humiliation which targets him since his release at the hands of some local officials, adding that his past as a detainee is following him. "All the promises made to us were not honored. We are endeavoring, by our own means, to succeed in our social integration," he said.

The hearings, to resume in January 2005, are designed as an exceptional moment constituent to allow victims talk about their sufferings to the public and to the whole nation.