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THOUSANDS OF MOROCCANS have attended the funeral of a fishmonger whose gruesome death in a rubbish truck crusher has caused outrage across the North African country, with authorities vowing to punish those responsible.
Mouhcine Fikri, 31, was crushed to death last Friday in the truck in the northern city of Al Hoceima as he reportedly tried to protest against a municipal worker seizing and destroying his wares.
An image of his inert body – head and arm sticking out from under the lorry’s crushing mechanism – went viral on social media, sparking calls for protests nationwide including in the capital Rabat.
Footage online showed thousands of people following the yellow ambulance that carried Fikri’s body through Al-Hoceima in the ethnically Berber Rif region.
Interior Minister Mohamed Hassad condemned the incident and vowed that an investigation would be held to “determine the exact circumstances of the tragedy and punish those responsible”.
No one had the right to treat him like this… we cannot accept officials acting in haste, anger or in conditions that do not respect people’s rights,” he told AFP.
Funeral procession
The funeral procession was led by a dozen drivers in their cars – including taxis – and marchers waving Berber flags.
The ambulance headed to the area of Imzouren some 20 kilometres (12 miles) southeast of the city, where Fikri was buried in the late afternoon.
The circumstances of his death remained unclear.
But a human rights activist told AFP that the authorities forced the fishmonger to destroy several boxes of swordfish. Catching swordfish using driftnets is illegal.
“The goods were worth a lot of money,” said Fassal Aoussar from the local branch of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH).
“The salesman threw himself in after his fish and was crushed by the machine,” he said.
The whole of the Rif is in shock and boiling over.
‘Criminals, assassins, terrorists!’
Long neglected under the father of the current king, the Rif was at the heart of Morocco’s protest movement for change in 2011, dubbed the February 20 movement.
Protests continued in Al-Hoceima late last night, an AFP reporter said, with protesters shouting: “Criminals, assassins, terrorists!”
The people of the Rif won’t be humiliated!
The crowd eventually dispersed around 9.30pm Irish time without incident.
Thousands of demonstrators – including activists for Berber rights – also gathered in Rabat, chanting “We are all Mouhcine!”.
Smaller protests were held in several other Rif towns and, unusually, in Casablanca and Marrakesh.
In a statement, the AMDH condemned the state for “having trampled on the dignity of citizens since the ferocious repression of the February 20 movement and keeping the region in a state of tension”.
It warned of a “possible repeat” of the 2011 protests in the Rif, just a week before Morocco starts hosting international climate talks.
King Mohammed VI has ordered a “thorough and exhaustive investigation” into Fikri’s death and the “prosecution of whoever is found responsible”, an interior ministry statement said.
The king – who was in Zanzibar on a tour of East Africa – sent the interior minister to “present his condolences” to Fikri’s family, it said.
It was the self-immolation of a street vendor in Tunisia in late 2010 in protest at police harassment that sparked Tunisia’s revolution and the Arab Spring uprisings across the rest of the region the next year.
Morocco is due to host the COP22 climate talks in Marrakesh from 7 November to the 18 November.
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So they are protesting that a guy committed suicide after being caught illegally selling swordfish. Did I read the article correctly?
Just read the (far more professional) article in The Guardian. Seems the poor guy slipped as he was trying to retrieve his fish from the truck. Horrible way to go.
The last relatively stable country in North Africa… I smell another “Arab Spring” here…
@mac.kerel:
Yeah and wait for it…”and it was all instigated & orchestrated by the USA, the UK, the French and of course the USA’s Zionist allies the Israelies”! In fact they must have been one of them that threw him and his fish into the garbage truck in the first place!
It has got so bad now that they will soon be blaming one or all of the above for the 1st and 2nd World Wars and all things in between and before!!!
Hello Journal.ie
So the death of one guy in Morocco is a headline for Irish people? Nothing happening perhaps on the emerald isle? Without being disrespectful to this individual, surely there are thousand more injustices on a larger scale you COULD be reporting on? Some of them might even concern Ireland?
Think it’s to do with the implications of another potential Arab Spring movement
Believe it or not some people are interested in international news too
yes while your at it write strongly worded letters to rte and tv3 insisting they stop broadcasting world news during the news slots. if only we could turn off the Internet in Ireland too so none of us have to be poisoned with information from around the globe.
@deisecelt: You miss the point completely. You must have turned off from the outside world in order to be that obtuse.
@David O’Brien: The death of one man in bin lorry, is seldom regarded as INTERNATIONAL news. This is local Moroccan news. There are many things happening in the Arab world in the north African states that are international news. I am merely pointing out, the oddity of this single story being highlighted by the journal.ie. However we could always just read what is posted without ever asking questions. Perhaps that is preferable to you?
So we have idiots that think a nationwide protest in Morocco shouldn’t make the papers ?
@Bernard O’Brien: Well conclusions like yours make me give up in despair. Read what was written not what you want to see……..
@Colm Maguire: When you are in a hole it is considered a good idea to stop digging. One of the implications for Ireland and the rest of Europe is that if Morocco follows the rest of North Africa into anarchy it will mean more people in boats, lots more people in boats, trying to reach Europe and given that you can see Europe – Gibraltar and Spain – from the Moroccan coast what is already a flood has the potential to turn into a tsunami.
they love an old protest these arabs, a man gets killed in an accident and theres an investigation. happens here a lot on building sites, farms etc, we don’t see this. very aggressive. let the investigation do its job.
Not making a link to the tragic story above but if you are just looking for a good read, check out the Clintons dealings with Morocco – made my head spin… https://theintercept.com/2015/04/22/inside-morocco-clinton-influence-campaign/
have your say