Next human rights public hearings to take place in Errachidia

The 4th session of the public hearings on past human rights violations in Morocco between 1956 and 1999 is to take place on Wednesday in the southern-central town of Errachidia.

The Errachdia public hearings, organised at the initiative of the justice and reconciliation commission (IER), set up in January 2004 to shed light on the violations, will be attended by some 400 people, most of whom are former victims, as well as representatives of local political parties, unions, national and foreign reporters.

IER sources said that like the public hearings held last weekend in Figuig, South-East Morocco, ten people will take the floor to relate the violations they were subjected to, particularly around 1973.

The presentations, according to the same sources, will revolve around events that occurred in March 1973 when some people disappeared while others were mistreated in detention in the towns of Errachidia, Tinghir, Errich and Imilchil. The March 1973 events, also dubbed "armed opposition," were marked by activities of the secret Ittihadi movements and those of elements of the "Tanzim" organisation, that sneaked into Morocco from Algeria and Libya and spread into groups in Khenifra, Guelmim, Tinghir and Figuig.

The members of these movements were arrested by September 1973 and brought to justice in military courts which condemned to 19 people to death, 15 to life sentence, while others were sentenced to prison terms up to 30 years. The commission started, in Rabat last December, public hearings on human rights violations and schedules other sessions in Khenifra next Sunday after those of Errachidia.