A week long demonstration by unemployed youth in Moroccan town met with brutal crackdown by the police and the army who then ransacked the town last month, claim witnesses and NGOs. But the Moroccan government and NGOs still hold very different accounts of the event.
The bureau chief of a TV company is now awaiting trial for "broadcasting false information and complicity" for claims made in coverage of the event, which may see him put in jail for a year.
Unemployed graduates protesting a failure of the government to keep development promises blockaded the port of Sidi Ifni on Mai 30th, trapping 89 lorries loaded with nearly 800 tones of fish.
The blockade lasted a week until June 7th when the government sent in the army and police to disperse the crowd. Accounts of what happened later are sketchy. The government initially denied the incident but later said 44 people had been injured including 27 law enforcement officers and 182 protesters had been arrested.
Residents claim that after the port blockade was broken, police and army personnel ransacked the town, stealing the contents of houses, beating residents and raping women.
Icham Hodi from the association Sidi Ifni-Ait Baamrane said "When the King of Morocco came to Sidi Ifni, he said he would develop the economy of this town, finance certain projects, the problem is, that was two years ago and we are still waiting."
"Military personnel went into houses, destroyed doors to steal women's gold. There was extreme violence,"
Samira Kabach who owns a house in Sidi Ifni said; "I no longer have a TV or armchair, my cooker is destroyed, I have no more washing machine, this was all taken. No one lives there, so why did they enter my house?"
Al Jazeera initially reported that five demonstrators had been killed, angering the Moroccan government. Hassan Rachidi, Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Morocco and Ibrahim Sebaâ El Layl, President of the Moroccan Centre for Human Rights were subsequently charged with "broadcasting false information and complicity". Rachidi's accreditation was withdrawn and the two men face up to one year in prison and hefty fines if found guilty.
The Moroccan House of Representatives has set up a parliamentary commission to investigate the events but many are skeptical. "I trust external organizations "said Mohamed Bouzalim, president of Sidi Ifni-Ait Baamrane.
The cultural organization, whose members have been demonstrating in Paris and Spain, is demanding the release of all prisoners and a withdrawal of police and army personnel from the town
Mohamed Bouzalim said: "As for the withdrawal of the police, apparently half of them have already left. They freed seven people they are still holding five people. "
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