[The following article appeared in the August 10 issue of Rouge, weekly newspaper of the French Trotskyists. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
"He tore the blindfold off me and said, 'Take a good look. I am Dlimi, Colonel Dlimi. It's been a long time since I tortured anyone. But I'll start again on you with pleasure.' Then he himself raised the bar I was tied to, bound hand and foot (the 'parrot's perch' torture), crushed out cigarette butts on me, and then indicated his satisfaction to my torturers by inviting them to have a banquet in my presence."
We are in Kenitra, in the little room called the "peace tribunal," renamed "military" for this occasion. The speaker is Omar Dakhoum, the second of 157 (157!) defendants, and he is telling about the torture he was subjected to. In the audience, no one is surprised. Torture has long since been the method of governing in the contry of Hassan II. And at the highest level, too; for Colonel Dlimi is none other than the head of the Moroccan political police, the successor of the notorious Oufkir.
In Morocco in the summer of 1973 to be on trial is an honor. From Kenitra to Marrakesh, passing through Casablanca, three tribunals will be functioning for several months. The mockery of justice is steaming ahead full blast; more than 300 persons are being tried.
The first trial, at Kenitra, opened on June 26. The defendants were for the most part members of the UNFP [Union Nationale Ces Forces Populaires - National Union of Popular Forces), the traditional left organization of which Ben Barka was one of the leaders. The second began a week ago in Casablanca. The eighty-one defendants, of whom six are out on bail and thirty are still at large, are dissidents of the UNFP or the PLS 1008
[Parti de la Libération et du Socialisme-Party of Liberation and Socialism, the former Moroccan Communist party; they are Maoists and far-leftists. Finally, the third trial will be held in Marrakesh in coming weeks.
Why are these trials, which come after the 2,500 arrests since last March 3, going on?
The Moroccan monarchy has never recovered from the two attempted coups (at Skirat in 1971 and at Kenitra in 1972) that were engineered by dissident factions in the army. The main pillar of the Hassan Il regime is crumbling. The unshakable loyalty of the Moroccan army came to an end with these two putsch attempts. Today the police, with Dlimi at their head, are rushing to fill the breach.
But the regime's social base is narrower than ever. Reduced to a mere watch dog guaranteeing imperialist exploitation, especially American and French, Hassan's little kingdom feels threatened.
To regain control over the situation, the regime has resorted to a policy that has two sides that are really one and the same. First, to eliminate all those who challenge the existing regime, putting into practice the astounding principle proclaimed in 1972 by Hassan himself:
"God has placed the king on the throne to safeguard the monarchy. In order to effect this safeguarding, the royal court will not hesitate, if necessary, to exterminate the one-third of the population holding nefarious ideas in order to save the healthy twothirds."
Parallel with this massive repression, confidence is being placed in foreign capitalists. The "Moroccanization" of French interests is a simple readjustment from which both France and Moroceo profit. It satisfies the Moroccan comprador bourgeoisie by cutting down on the 100,000 French nationals in Morocco, but it also favors the large imperialist French companies by granting them exorbitant privileges.
In this sense, Pompidou's France is taking part in the current repression. Whereas the United States backhandedly encouraged Oufkir's attempted coup, French imperialism sees Hassan as the best guarantor of its interests. Hence the numerous military accords between the two countries and the sending of "special advisers" to the Moroccan police. We haveno doubt that these gentlemen are giving instructions in the niceties of torture.
The aim of the trials is simple: to strike above all at those who refuse to come to terms with the regime, those who reject all compromise solutions and who insist on their desire to overthrow the regime. In this regard, at the Kenitra trial the defense fell into the trap laid by the prosecution: The defense wanted especially to demonstrate that the leading bodies of the UNFP, a legalist and reformist party, were hostile to the armed uprisings of March 3, 1973, in which some members of this party participated. In this sense, the defense catered to the desires of the regime, which would like to make use of the traditional opposition (the Istiqlal [Independence]- UNFP), in order to broaden its social base.
On the other hand, during the trial that just opened in Casablanca, the accused, for the most part members of the Progressive Front, a far-left organization, reaffirmed their struggle for socialism, while at the same time refuting the charges brought against them; they thus made no concessions on the principles of their action. They are clearly affirming the aims of their fight against a regime that is composed only of torturers and assassins.
Some of these militants face the death penalty. Others may get life imprisonment. The silence surrounding their trial must be broken. To alarge extent, the verdicts handed down in the three trials will depend on international protest. It is up to us to make Hassan back down, for we can expect no "clemency" from him. Any doubts about this can be dispelled by a declaration given by the Moroccan minister of "justice":
"When it is a matter of a plot against the state, there is no more legality; all exceptional measures are justified. Today all the police in the world know how to make a suspect tell what he knows, everything that he knows, and nothing but what he knows."