06/27/2005
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Hard Life. “The conditions in Moroccan prisons are an emergency, truly an emergency.” The
first words in Benabdeslam Abdelilah’s phone call from Rabat are bitter ones.
Abdelilah works for AMDH, a Moroccan human rights organization. “There are currently 60,000 people in
the kingdom’s prisons who have received their definitive sentences, but counting
those in transit, the population comes to around 80,000. The principle problem
is overcrowding. There isn’t enough space.”
The Strike. This explosive situation led to the recent prisoner strike for more humane conditions.
“Our estimates count about 1500 participants in the strike, although the authorities
count only 700,” Abdelilah says.” The strike stopped after Khalid died because
they were given promises, but they are prepared to begin again if nothing changes.”
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Interview with Benabdeslam Abdelilah, Moroccan Human Rights Activist
Last May 2, with a statement released through the Spanish press, prisoners in
Morocco began a hunger struck that recently led to the death of one of them, Khalid
al-Boukri.
International media have so far treated the matter only superficially, perhaps
because many of the striking prisoners were accused in the May, 2003 attack in
Casablanca that killed forty-five people. Attention to this aspect of the story
has obscured the principle problem: conditions in Moroccan jails.
Hard Life. “The conditions in Moroccan prisons are an emergency, truly an emergency.” The
first words in Benabdeslam Abdelilah’s phone call from Rabat are bitter ones.
Abdelilah works for AMDH, a Moroccan human rights organization. “There are currently 60,000 people in
the kingdom’s prisons who have received their definitive sentences, but counting
those in transit, the population comes to around 80,000. The principle problem
is overcrowding. There isn’t enough space.”Prison conditions are hard in many places in the world, but the Moroccan statistics
are shocking. “For example, a prison built for a hundred people contains six hundred.
That’s the standard proportion,” says Abdelilah.
Problems of Every Kind. “If I had to make priorities in this emergency,” says the AMDH official, “the
first thing that comes to mind is the absence of food.” Not a shortage, Abdelilah
specifies, but absence. “There is simply not food for everyone. All the prisoners
survive thanks to assistance from their families who bring them food. The situation
is still more grave in the main prisons,” he continues, “because the prisoners
who have no families to help them aren’t getting enough food.”
But nutrition is not the only area where minimal criteria of humanity are lacking.
“Medical care, for example.” Abdelilah continues, “Any disease is only dealt with
when it becomes a grave emergency. Otherwise nothing is done. You can imagine
all the problems that come from living together in a confined space without enough
food or water for everyone. Gastrointestinal problems, skin, eyes, ears, throat.
. . nobody does anything. The cells are overcrowded and the prisoners spend
all their time sitting down so as to preserve a minimal vital space. That doesn’t
help.
Another example is family visiting hours. Families are only permitted to visit
their loved ones ten minutes a week.”
The Strike. This explosive situation led to the recent prisoner strike for more humane conditions.
“Our estimates count about 1500 participants in the strike, although the authorities
count only 700,” Abdelilah says.” The strike stopped after Khalid died because
they were given promises, but they are prepared to begin again if nothing changes.”The Moroccan activist does not appear optimistic. “The reform program of King
Mohammed VI is only theory. No changes have taken place. I see the work we do
as a total project, so for me it’s difficult to separate the prison problem with
our efforts to improve human rights elsewhere in Morocco. Like the conditions
for women. The prison situation is extremely serious because of the negligence
of the prison administrators toward every category of prisoner, from cases of
torture to lack of food. The strike could begin again at any moment, and I’m not
forgetting that one person has died already.”
Christian Elia
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