Morocco turns former secret prisons into cultural centres

02/12/2008

Moroccan authorities signed an agreement last week to convert former prisons into local social centres. While planners and many citizens view the prison restoration as a way to preserve memory, others would prefer to see the notorious structures torn down.

By Naoufel Cherkaoui for Magharebia in Rabat – 02/12/08

[Getty Images] Restoration plans will turn former prisons into social and cultural facilities, says CCDH President Ahmed Herzenni.

Residents of Moroccan regions that suffered human rights abuses in the 1970s and 1980s will be compensated through a new agreement on housing rehabilitation signed last week in Rabat. The plan also calls for former secret prisons to be converted into social and cultural centres.

The agreement, signed on November 25th) by the Consultative Council on Human Rights (CCDH) and the Ministry of Housing, provides for the rehabilitation of housing in the areas surrounding the former "disappearance centres", and ensures the sites will serve as "spaces for the preservation of memory".

"This initiative, which is part of the programme [offering] compensation for collective damages, is particularly important because human rights are comprehensive rights not restricted to political and civil rights," said CCDH President Ahmed Herzenni.

He added that the restoration of former prisons, such as Darb Moulay Ali Charif, Agdz, and Kelaat M'gouna targets primarily the preservation of memory, but that it will also turn them into viable social, economic and cultural areas in their respective communities.

Herzenni told Magharebia the infamous Tazmamart prison will not be included in the current project, though it is "part of the general programme and will be restored later".

According to Housing Minister Ahmed Taoufiq Hejira, government inspectors will begin assessing the level of restoration needed for these prisons within days.

"The issue of the preservation of memory regarding the former prisons is an essential issue for the forum," Mohamed Sabbar, President of the Moroccan Forum for Truth and Equity, told Magharebia.

Citing a "moral duty" towards the victims of forced disappearance, he said, "We have basic standards that require the preservation of the spirit of those places, such as placing wall paintings showing the names of former prisoners, whether dead or alive."

His group has already lodged complaints over previous alterations to prison sites. "The first is the construction of a residential city at the area of the Corbis Prison at Anfa Airport in Casablanca, and we have great fears that the building of that prison will demolished; and the second is the demolition of the cells of the Tazmamart prison which took place in 1993."

The restoration of Tazmamart prison will be considered at a seminar in December between the CCDH and the Tazmamart Association in the city of Rachidia in southern Morocco.

"This is a good step," Sabbar added, "because it will allow the people concerned... to give proposals about the restoration of the prison."

"This is a positive initiative because it is one of the recommendations made in the report of Equity and Reconciliation Commission, but we mustn't stop at this point," Moroccan Centre for Human Rights President Khalid Cherkaoui Semmouni told Magharebia.

Semmouni said Tazmamart should have been placed on the top of the list of prisons to be restored, given its status as the most infamous prison.

Not all Moroccans agree with the intended re-use or rehabilitation of these prison sites, however.

Kerima, an employee at a private company, told Magharebia that the former prisons should be demolished out of respect for those who suffered, and also to turn the page on the human rights abuses of Morocco's past.

Meanwhile, Mohammed, an unemployed young man, said the prisons should be restored to serve as a testament to the crimes of the past, so that they wouldn't be repeated in the future.