Stone carvings in Morocco’s High Atlas mountains dating back more than 8,000 years and depicting the sun as a pagan divinity have been destroyed by Salafists, a local rights group said on Wednesday.
„These stone carvings of the sun are more than 8,000 years old. They were destroyed several days ago,“ Aboubakr Anghir, a member of the Amazigh (Berber) League for Human Rights, told AFP.
„One of the carvings, called ‚the plaque of the sun,‘ predates the arrival of the Phoenicians in Morocco,“ Anghir said.
„It lies in a well-known archaeological site in the Yakour plain south of Marrakesh, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Mount Toubkal.“
„There are several Salafist groups active in the region and it’s not the first time these pre-Islamic sites have been attacked. We have sent a message to the ministry of culture, but have not yet received a reply,“ he added.
Salafists, Muslims who adhere to a hardline Sunni interpretation of Islam similar to that practised in Saudi Arabia, which strictly prohibits „idolatry,“ have enjoyed a surge in strength in Arab Spring countries, benefiting from wider freedom.
Late on Monday, one of Tunisia’s main Sufi mausoleums was burned down in an overnight arson attack, seemingly the latest in a spate of attacks on unorthodox Sufi shrines by the country’s increasingly assertive Salafists.
In northern Mali, which is close to Morocco, radical Islamists have destroyed ancient World Heritage shrines they consider idolatrous since seizing control of the region earlier this year.:
Said Elhairech, Generalsekretär der Union des Syndicats UMT des Transports wurde nach mehr als drei Monaten aus dem Knast entlassen, ihm wurden auf Grund seiner gewerkschaftlichen Aktivitäten – Organisierung von Streiks – eine Gefährdung der nationalen Sicherheit vorgeworfen. Im Nachbarland Algerien wurde Yacine Zaïd – Gewerkschafter und Menschenrechtsaktivist von Unbekannten (vermutlich Staatsschutzmitarbeitern) geschlagen und an einen unbekannten Ort verschleppt, mehr hier.
Quelle: LabourStart, wo auch ein Protestbrief unterschrieben werden kann:
Morocco: Free Said Elhairech
On 16 June, Said Elhairech, general secretary of Moroccan dockers union, Union des Syndicats UMT des Transports, was arrested in Casablanca on unfounded charges, including one relating to national security.
More than two months later Said is still being held in prison in the Moroccan capital of Rabat awaiting trial. He has already been denied bail.
Said is a dedicated and active trade unionist and has been recently involved in high-profile cases; he assisted in defending the rights of stranded Moroccan seafarers following the bankruptcy of the Comarit-Comanav ferry company, and was also closely involved in the securing of a collective agreement in November for dockers in the Eurogate terminal in Tangiers.
In reality the accusations against Said have been created in order to wage an attack on the trade union work of himself and his colleagues and as such they amount to an attack on trade union rights in general in Morocco.
Join us in the campaign to free Said from prison by sending a letter of protest to the Moroccan government, and demonstrate that trade unionists cannot be bullied or intimidated into giving up their fight to maintain the fundamental rights and freedoms of workers.
Marokko hält nicht nur seit 1976 die Westsahara besetzt sondern diskriminiert – trotz einiger Zugeständnisse – weiterhin in der Praxis die amazighischen (gemeinhin besser unter dem Begriff Berberisch/BerberInnen bekannt) Kulturen und Sprachen, derzeit, wie ein Artikel auf der Webseite von Workers‘ Liberty meldet, wird in der Er Rif-Region derzeit Repressionsschraube angezogen, ein kurzer Auszug:
„The new Islamist-controlled government in Morocco has been engaging in increased repression against the social movement which started last year under the name of the “20 February Movement”, as the Moroccan expression of the Arab Spring.
In the Berber-speaking Rif region, this repression has been intense for several weeks, with housing demolitions, widespread use of tear gas and other weapons, with deaths and many injuries.“
Moroccan aggression against saharawi delegation participating in WSF in Dakar
Dakar (Senegal) Feb7,2011(SPS) At least one members of the Saharawi delegation participating in the 11th World Social Forum (WSF) taking place in Dakar was injured , after a violent aggression by members of Moroccan delegation on Sunday after the end of opening ceremony of the Forum, according to president of the Saharawi delegation.
“At the end of the opening march of the Social Forum the members of the Moroccan delegation which consist of 300 persons armed with sticks attacked the Saharawi participating delegation,” said the President of the Saharawi Delegation, also Secretary General of the Union of Saharawi Workers, Mohamed Chikh Lehbib.
“The Saharawi delegation including women was surrounded in a square devoted to SADR where Moroccans attacked us and stole Sahrawi flags and injured one of the delegation,” he said adding that Security forces immediately intervened.
For his part president of the organizing committee of WSF, Boubacar Diop Booba, indicated that while he heard what happened his committee confirmed to the Saharawi delegation that all procedures to protect them has been taken with contribution of security services, adding that this event will not be happen again.(SPS)
„- Do not trust those who remained from the gang of Ben Ali! Beware of liberal political forces that are very eager to ride on people’s victory! All the power to the revolutionary people! This is the slogan that should unite all Tunisian revolutionaries.
– For a second, third, fourth, and fifth Tunisia! Against the tyrannical regimes sponsoring division! For a Great Democratic United and Socialist Maghreb! These are the slogans that should unite the revolutionaries in the Great Maghreb.
– All the victory to the Tunisian Revolution; the forefront of the revolution in the North of Africa and the Middle East.“
„One of the most refreshing things about the Tunisian uprising – and very unusual for the Middle East – has been the lack of meddling by external interests. Apart from a few mouse-like squeaks from the state department, the US stayed out of it and so too did God, along with his self-appointed representatives on earth.
In most Arab countries, Islamists are seen as the main alternative to existing regimes – which suits the regimes fine because it scares people into supporting them. In Tunisia, though, as George Joffe explained, the organisational strength of the uprising came mainly from the country’s biggest trade union, the UGTT, with students and thousands of disaffected citizens also joining in. The rhetoric was broadly leftist rather than religious.
Hopefully, what Tunisia can provide for the Middle East is a new model – a secular alternative to the Iranian revolution. There are no ayatollahs waiting in the wings. The Islamists will probably to resurface after two decades of suppression, but there are no indications that they have a large popular following in Tunisia and they are unlikely to play anything more than a minor role in the country’s political future.
If the Tunisian revolution continues on its current path, we could even see the beginnings of a post-Islamist phase in the Arab countries.“
Beinahe unbemerkt von der linken Weltöffentlichkeit finden derzeit, von den Gemischtwarenläden Weltbund der Demokratischen Jugend (WBDJ) und International Union of Students (IUS) veranstaltet, in Pretoria/Südafrika die 17. Weltfestspiele der Jugend und Studenten statt … Obergockel Jakob Zuma wendete sich an die Weltjugend und wie bei prinzipielosen Blöcken zu erwarten gibt es auch Stress:
„Die von regierungsnahen Organisationen getragene marokkanische Delegation ist von den XVII. Weltfestspielen der Jugend und StudentInnen in Südafrika ausgeschlossen worden. Zuvor sei es zu einer »weiteren brutalen Attacke gegen eine andere Delegation« gekommen, berichten die VertreterInnen aus Spanien über ihren Facebook-Account. Schon zuvor war es mehrfach zu Zusammenstössen zwischen den Marokkanern und der Delegation aus der Westsahara gekommen.
Die saharauische Delegation hat ausserdem darüber informiert, dass die marokkanischen Behörden elf Jugendliche festgenommen haben, die eigentlich am Festival in Pretoria teilnehmen sollten. Bei ihrem Versuch, über die Flughäfen von El Aaiún oder Casablanca auszureisen, seien sie von den Marokkanern verhaftet worden. Zugleich warnt die Delegation der Westsahara, dass auch den 29 Aktivisten, die aus den von Marokko besetzten Gebieten nach Südafrika gereist sind, bei ihrer Rückkehr die Verhaftung droht.
Heute beginnt in Pretoria das Antiimperialistische Tribunal, bei dem die nationalen Delegationen die Verbrechen des Imperialismus anprangern werden. Die saharauischen Vertreter werden auch diese Veranstaltung nutzen, um die Besatzungspolitik Marokkos anzuprangern.“
offenbar handelt es sich bei der marokkanischen Delegation um Mitglieder der drei dortigen WBDJ-Mitglieder Istiqlal Party Youth, USFP Jeunesse Ittihadiya und Jeunesse Socialiste, die wie das Gros der marokkanischen Gesellschaft und auch die meisten Organisationen der marokkanischen Linken (lobenswerte Ausnahmen sind da u.a. Annahj Addimocrati und Al-Mounadhil) die Gross-Marokkopolitik des Staates voll unterstützen … schon bei den Weltfestspielen 2001 in Algier hatten Schläger des Saddam-Regimes exilirakische Studierende angegriffen
Transfer of three Sahrawi human rights defenders to military court in Rabat
El Aaiun (Occupied Territories), December 8, 2010 (SPS) – The court of occupation decided Tuesday to transfer three Sahrawi human rights defenders Mohamed Tahlil, Bashir Khada and Hasan Dah to the military court in Rabat, after they were arrested on December 4, in the occupied city of El Aaiun, according to Sahrawi human rights sources.
Transferring the three detainees to the military court in Rabat, brings the number of all those who have been transferred to 18 detainees.
It should be recalled that the three human rights activists had been arrested, in the years 2005, 2006 and 2007, and suffered beating, harassment and persecution by Moroccan police. (SPS)
Entdinglichung 