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Around 3,000 Dutch people of Moroccan descent gathered on Saturday, 28th of October, at the Theater Square in Rotterdam, to protest against the «oppression» of Riffians, reports NOS, a Dutch online newspaper. The demonstration organized by the «Mohcine Fikri Committee-Netherlands» took place to commemorate the death of Mohcine Fikri, an Al Hoceima native who was crushed on October 28th 2016, by a garbage truck trying to retrieve his confiscated fish. The incident is considered a trigger of the Hirak popular movement that has shaken the Rif region for more that a year.
Demonstrations in France and Spain
During this peaceful demonstration, the committee called the international community to «urge the Moroccan authorities into releasing the political prisoners and improve the situation in the Rif region». A «walk of dignity» in homage to Hohcine Fikritook place on the same day in Paris, most precisely at the Place de la Bastille, also organized by the Hirak support committee-Ile de France (CSMRIDF), indicates the Paris section of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH).
Manifestación Atocha-Sol tras un año del asesinato de Fikri. Exigimos la libertad para los presos del #Rif y que se escuchen sus demandas. pic.twitter.com/QGb6291Pqp
— Hirak Madrid (@HirakMadrid) October 28, 2017
In Spain, Madrid and Barcelona a number of people gathered to commemorate the death of Mohcine Fikri. On Saturday, the «Coordination of the Madrid People's Movement» called for a peaceful protest in the capital to «demand the release of all detainees, shed light on the murder of Mohcine Fikri, Imad el Attabi, Abdelhafid El Haddad ( ...) and respond to the legitimate demands of the Riffian people that the government recognized before».
A call for solidarity
For the record, a call for international solidarity was launched by the AMDH to demand «the immediate release of the hundreds of political prisoners of the Hirak movement in Morocco». The call was signed in just a few days by 18 members of the European Parliament, dozens of trade unionists and academics, and many public figures, including American intellectual and linguist Noam Chomsky, British filmmaker Ken Loach and writer and activist Indian Arundhati Roy.
On the other hand, the provincial authorities in Al Hoceima have decided to ban all protests scheduled for the 27th and 28th of October after the Hirak National Support Committee called for demonstrations on social media to commemorate the death of Mohcine Fikri, said a statement issued by the province’s prefecture in Al Hoceima on Thursday.
