Moroccan dissidents and prisoners use hunger strikes as weapons

2008-09-05

Hunger strikes, long a weapon of the weak, are being used by an increasing number of Moroccan prisoners and protesters to demand better conditions.

By Imrane Binoual for Magharebia in Casablanca – 05/09/08

[Getty Images] Moroccans go on hunger strike for a number of reasons. Here, a group of French-educated university teachers have stopped eating to press for recognition of their foreign degrees.

A group of university students in Marrakesh arrested for clashes with law enforcement officers recently went on a hunger strike which lasted for more than three weeks; journalist Mustapha Hormatallah mounted a hunger strike last May to demand his release from jail; dozens of Sahrawi prisoners struck at Ait Melloul and Laayoune; unemployed graduates mounted a hunger strike to call attention to their lack of jobs and political and Salafist detainees at prisons in Kenitra, Salé, Agadir and Tangier protested by going without food for several days.

For reporters and editors protesting free speech restrictions, workers demanding the government's intervention to provide jobs and better wages, imprisoned religious dissidents or even criminals hoping for better prison conditions or a new trial, hunger strikes have become "the weapon of the powerless".

Hunger strikes, which involve complete fasting – whether for a few days or a few months – are often seen as the last resort for those who lack human freedoms or basic rights, according to the Moroccan Prison Observatory.

"Politically, the hunger strike is the only way of getting one’s voice heard by the public from inside a cell," said Casablanca attorney and Karama [Dignity] Human Rights Association President Abdelatif Hatimy.

"This way", he added, "detainees can appeal to people’s consciences, which cannot remain unmoved by the prospect that a prisoner could die."

"No one can be indifferent to an appeal of this kind," he said, "and that’s where the press comes in to publicise and amplify the call so that justice-loving people learn of the hunger striker’s plight."

He also noted that the state, which has full power to rescue people in such situations, is obliged to account and answer for its failure to act where someone is in imminent danger of death.

Like many other human rights advocates, Hatimy firmly believes that "in countries where human rights are respected – and Morocco’s constitution puts it into this category – the hunger strike is a means of exerting pressure".

[Getty Images] The families of incarcerated Moroccan terror suspects protest outside the Justice Ministry. Family members are sometimes the only people who can convince hunger strikers to begin eating again.

While this kind of pressure may occasionally work, "it brings suffering and sometimes serious consequences", countered Dr. Abdelakrim Manouzi, President of the Medical Association for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture (AMRVT).

Going on a hunger strike can threaten the life of an otherwise healthy person.

The political and psychological aspects of hunger strikes add to their complexity. As one former political detainee told Magharebia, "Hunger strike that ends in death cannot be compared with suicide."

"Protesters who refuse to eat don’t do so with the intention of killing themselves but instead to put pressure on the authorities so that they will change their policy," he said.

"They may end up dying as a result, but in most cases death is not the main objective." Strikers usually suspend their protest before falling seriously ill, for a number of reasons – either they end it voluntarily, change their minds, or are persuaded to resume eating by their families, lawyers or prison guards. They may also give in to force-feeding.

In some cases, the death of one or more prisoners is used as an argument in confrontations with the authorities. There are many examples to show how effective – and how tragic – this "weapon" can be.

It was only by going on a series of hunger strikes that some political prisoners and prisoners of conscience succeeded over the years in bringing about improvements to their prisons, said Chaouki Adil, a member of the Moroccan Forum for Truth and Justice.

Two famous cases during the so-called "Years of Lead", Adil recounted, were those of Boubker Douraidi and Mustapha Belhouari. They began a hunger strike on July 4, 1984 to protest harsh prison conditions and the lack of medical care. They both died less than two months later.

Two other prisoners began an indefinite hunger strike in 1985. They were strapped into beds in separate rooms at the Ibnou Rochd University Hospital in Casablanca and force-fed by the authorities until the day of their release in 1991, when they received a royal pardon.

[Getty Images] Moroccan journalists rally in support of Mustapha Hormatallah following his arrest and subsequent hunger strike.

Abdelhaq Chbada, another prisoner of conscience, died in August 1989, just one month before he was due to be released. Together with three other detainees at the Laalou prison in Rabat, he went on hunger strike in June 1989 to protest inadequate medical care provided to prisoners who had been tortured. His fellow hunger-strikers continued their protest until February 1990.

Just recently, a number of political prisoners in Marrakesh went on a hunger strike to demand better health conditions and treatment in prison. The strike lasted for 46 days, ending only when the students' families and civil society organisations pleaded for them to stop. Authorities promised to improve prison conditions.

However, despite being regarded as heroic by some, the hunger strike weapon is losing some of its force due to overuse, according to one prison officer at the Oukacha prison in Casablanca.

"There are criminals and thieves who go on strike to make unacceptable demands, in particular for drugs. Some of them say they’re going to do it but are unable to go through with it," he told Magharebia.

There is one exception.

"If political prisoners say they'll do it," he said, "they keep their word."