US Gives Credence to Misleading Rights Allegations against Morocco, Activist

The United States is giving credence to misleading allegations put forward by individuals and so-called NGOs known for painting a dismal picture of Morocco, instead of turning to a fully-fledged State endowed with dependable institutions to obtain necessary information about the human rights situation, said Moroccan rights activist Mohamed Salah Tamek.
The American State Department, in a sudden and baffling drastic reversal, chose to unequivocally side with the Kingdom of Morocco’s bitter enemies, noted Tamek, who is also a former prisoner.
Tamek wondered how come the US State Department is issuing such slanderous, ungrateful, factually inaccurate and totally biased report after having previously listed Morocco’s progress in terms of human rights on its own merits.
He recalled that Deputy Secretary of State Tobin Bradley conducted on Nov. 9-10, 2022, onsite visits to the DGAPR’s Staff Training Center in Tiflet and to the juvenile offenders correctional facility in Casablanca.
INL expert Richard Robinson also visited, from Jan. 24 to Feb. 8, the same Center and eight other correctional facilities, including Laâyoune local prison and the building site of the new Laâyoune prison, Tamek said, explaining that the goal was to assess up-close the infrastructure’s management, equipment and programs; with a view to granted it accreditation by the ACA as a hub.
The State Department had issued a report in which it extolls efforts by Moroccan institutions, especially the DGAPR, in the field of counterterrorism. However, in contrast with these laudatory testimonies, the same body is now publishing a scathing report which overflows with all kinds of fallacies, Tamek lamented.
Regarding the Moroccan Sahara issue, the human rights activist underscored a dramatic shift in the US attitude in the wake of the proclamation of Morocco’s sovereignty over its Sahara.
“Quite surprisingly, the Department of State went as far as considering the polisario a movement of liberation, while it fully knows that it is a terrorist organization that supports terror in the Sahel-Saharan region and that locks up Moroccan Sahrawi nationals in shabby camps, in total disregard of human rights,” he said.
Tamek also decried the story on a female individual put under home surveillance as fallacious, clarifying that the same woman partook, just few days ago, in the polisario camps congress and in a hearing at the European Parliament, and brought up imaginary disappearances.
Tamek slammed this rhetorical about-turn which is evidence of the spurious nature of the allegations contained in the report about ill-treating an inmate, deaths resulting from covid-19 in overcrowded prisons, and putting together inmate categories that are meant to be segregated.
Utterly puzzled, the Moroccan activist wondered how can the State Department account for such striking contradictions.
He concluded by saying that the United States is on the brink of letting down an old and unfailing ally, and opening the door for Morocco to look elsewhere.