RABAT, 29 November 2004 — Tens of thousands of Moroccans took to the streets of Rabat yesterday to protest a planned forum on US President George W. Bush’s vision of a “Greater Middle East” to be held in the Moroccan capital next month.
The march, which drew between 30,000 and 45,000 people according to press tallies and about 25,000 according to police, also included long lines of women wearing headscarves marching separately from the men.
The demonstration was jointly organized by the Action Group in Support of Iraq and Palestine and the Moroccan Cell Against the Forum for the Future, a project formally presented in June by Bush which has been treated with reserve in the Arab world, including Morocco.
The forum, set for Dec. 11, is an outgrowth of the US-backed “Broader Middle East and North Africa” initiative endorsed by the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialized countries aimed at promoting democratic reforms in the Middle East, north Africa and nearby areas including Iraq, Afghanistan and South Asia.
Foreign and finance ministers from more than 20 countries of the Middle East and North Africa are expected at the forum along with those of the G-8 countries — the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia — plus international organizations.
Protesters burned Israeli flags and several mock coffins could be seen symbolizing the “death” of the United Nations, “global conscience,” human rights and “Arab regimes.”
Waving Iraqi and Palestinian flags as well as portraits of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of the Palestinian Hamas movement who was assassinated by Israeli forces in March, they shouted: “Muslim Palestine, No Negotiations, No Peace, No Defeatist Solutions.” “Fallujah (The Iraqi Sunni rebel bastion seized by US-led forces) Resists While (Arab) Regimes Speculate” was another slogan.
Khalid Soufiani, president of the National Group for Solidarity with Iraq and Palestine, said: “ We oppose plans dictated by the United States, including at the Forum for the Future. We are demonstrating for Palestine and Iraq and against all forms of normalization with Israel.”
Fathallah Arasalane, the spokesman of Morocco’s largest Islamist association, Al Adl Wal Ihssane, told AFP, “We share the pain and anger of our brothers in Palestine and in Iraq, victims of killings.”
The Forum for the Future is the centerpiece of the Partnership for Progress and a Common Future with the Region of the Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA), launched by Bush and leaders of the G8 group of industrialized nations, along with leaders of seven countries from the region, at the G-8 summit of 2004 at Sea Island, Georgia.
Moroccan authorities said forum participants would examine ways of “consolidating the commitment of Middle East and north African countries to fruitful co-development and the harmonious strengthening of the process of political, economic and social reform.”
