 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(February 2019) |
| Author | Gilles Perrault |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Éditions Gallimard |
Publication date | 1990 |
| Media type | Print (hardback and paperback) |
| Pages | 384 |
Notre ami le roi (Our Friend the King) is a book written by Gilles Perrault in 1990. Its subject is King Hassan II of Morocco. Perrault's stated goal was to show that the modern, democratic facade of Morocco hid a brutal dictatorship. Notre ami le roi is not a biography.
Notre Ami le Roi caused a scandal in France. At its appearance King Hassan II demanded that it be banned - without success, although in similar cases the French government had shown itself open to the wishes of friendly leaders. Perrault addressed a French readership. "Our friend" means a friend of France.
He notes few sources, and no bibliography or references are included. Perrault shows his expertise, his analytical skills and his commitment to the oppressed. [1] [2]
The focus of the book is the representation of the Moroccan power system, especially the political repression and power struggles within the elite.
Perrault begins with an outline of Moroccan history, colonial times and the liberation struggle. He describes the background of the conflict over Western Sahara, the power of French banks and corporations in Morocco, the development of the opposition and the uprisings of the impoverished urban population.
In 1990 Hassan II confessed to an Amnesty International delegation, "Every head of state, has its secret gardens".
Perrault investigates the fate of individual political prisoners that could be reconstructed from source material.
For example, the Oufkir family was imprisoned for 18 years solely for its relationship with General Mohamed Oufkir. Until 1972 Oufkir was the strongman of the regime. He shot himself with four bullets, according to official Moroccan statements, after his participation in a coup attempt against Hassan II.
Abraham Serfaty was a Communist of Jewish descent and one of the few who questioned the Moroccan claim to Western Sahara.
Perrault demonstrates the character, mode of action, and goals of the repressive system. In Morocco, "two regimes coexist, as opposite as day and night" Thus there exists a "juridical system organized according to the norms of bourgeois democracy", besides "a pharaonic power". [3]
On Nov. 11, 1990. Steven Greenhouse wrote in The New York Times: Book on Morocco's King Strains French Ties
Government of France's normally close relations with Moroccan government have soured over the book, that accuses Hassan II of Morocco of systematic human rights violations.
Moroccan officials assert that the Government of France has helped organize a defamation campaign against Hassan II of Morocco because the writer of the book has been interviewed several times on France Télévisions and radio stations. [4]
French officials declared they were merely allowing the broadcasters to exercise freedom of the press.
"Our Friend the King," by Gilles Perrault, is a biography of Hassan II of Morocco and examines cases of torture, killing and political imprisonment said to have been carried out by the Moroccan Government.
Moroccan officials have threatened to end their cooperation agreements with France over this matter, and the French Foreign Minister, Roland Dumas, scheduled a hasty trip to Rabat to meet with Hassan II of Morocco on November 9, 1990, to mend relations.
Morocco's Prime Minister, Azzeddine Laraki, wrote a letter to his French counterpart, Michel Rocard, to denounce a "campaign of denigration" against his Government. Azzeddine Laraki alluded to an interview that state-owned Radio France Internationale.
Mr. Rocard replied that his Government could not restrain the press and broadcasting because French governments "have been committed to a policy of giving complete independenceto radio and television broadcasters."
According to Maghreb Arabe Press, 200,000 Moroccans sent messages to France to protest French reports criticizing the King.
In a speech, Hassan II of Morocco said: "More or less, they've accused me of being crazy. If that's true, all Moroccans must be crazy."
On October 30, 1990 the Moroccan Government learned that Danielle Mitterrand, the wife of President Francois Mitterrand, was planning to visit a refugee camp in Tindouf, where the Polisario Front was based.
Danielle Mitterrand, who headed the Fondation Danielle-Mitterrand - France Libertés , a Paris-based human rights organization that helps refugees, canceled the trip after Moroccan officials protested and one Rabat newspaper wrote that her trip showed that she "clearly does not love Morocco." Moroccan officials said her trip would encourage the Polisario Front, who are fighting Morocco's claims over the Western Sahara, former Spanish Sahara that is rich in minerals.
On November 8, 1990, in Paris Danielle Mitterrand met with Khadija Bent Hamdi, the wife of Mohamed Abdelaziz (Sahrawi politician), causing one Moroccan paper to write that she was "throwing oil on the fire." After his meeting with Hassan II of Morocco on November 9, 1990, Foreign Minister Roland Dumas said that tensions had been reduced and that both sides reiterated their desire to maintain friendly relations. [5]
On Sept. 11, 1990 the Moroccan Interior Minister, Driss Basri, met with the French Interior Minister, Pierre Joxe, to seek to prevent publication of Mr. Perrault's book. He even offered to buy up all the copies. Mr. Joxe rejected the request.
Mr. Perrault said his book "is not against Morocco as Hassan tries to make people believe," adding, "It is for the Moroccan people."
Hassan II was the King of Morocco from 1961 until his death in 1999.
The Green March was a strategic mass demonstration in November 1975, coordinated by the Moroccan government, to force Spain to hand over the disputed, autonomous semi-metropolitan province of Spanish Sahara to Morocco. At that time, the Spanish government was preparing to abandon the territory as part of the decolonization of Africa, just as it had previously granted independence to Equatorial Guinea in 1968. The Sahrawi people aspired to form an independent state. The demonstration of some 350,000 Moroccans advanced several kilometres into the Western Sahara territory. Morocco later gained control over most of the former Spanish Sahara, which it continues to hold.
Mohamed Abdelaziz was the 3rd Secretary General of the Polisario Front, from 1976, and the 1st President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic from 1982, until his death in 2016.
Tazmamart was a secret prison in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, holding political prisoners. The prison became a symbol of oppression in the political history of contemporary Morocco. It is located near the city of Er-Rich, between Errachida and Midelt. It was managed by commandant Feddoul and Hamidou Laanigri, both Royal Moroccan Gendarmerie officials.
General Mohammad Oufkir was a Moroccan senior military officer who held many important governmental posts. It is believed that he was assassinated for his alleged role in the failed 1972 Moroccan coup attempt.
Driss Basri was a Moroccan politician who served as interior minister from 1979 to 1999. After General Oufkir's death in 1972, and then Ahmed Dlimi's death in 1983, Driss Basri became Hassan II's right-hand man and number two of the regime from the beginning of the 1980s to the end of the 1990s. His name has been associated with the Years of Lead.
The National Union of Popular Forces was founded in 1959 in Morocco by Mehdi Ben Barka and his entourage, because they found that the Istiqlal Party was not radical enough.
Ahmed Dlimi; was a Moroccan General under the rule of Hassan II. After General Mohamed Oufkir's 1972 assassination, he became Hassan II's right-hand man. He led the Western Sahara War and played a major role in Angolan Civil War. He was promoted to General during the Green March in 1975, and took charge of the Moroccan Armed Forces in the Southern Zone, where the military were fighting the Polisario Front.
Gilles Perrault is a French writer, screenwriter and journalist. He attended the Collège Stanislas de Paris and then studied at the Institut d'études politiques, eventually becoming a lawyer, a profession he worked in for five years.
Christine Daure-Serfaty was a French human rights activist and writer who distinguished herself in Morocco where she embraced the fight of the victims of King Hassan II, during the "Years of Lead," and from afar, played a major role in the evolution of the regime and the human rights in Morocco. She was the wife of Abraham Serfaty, a Moroccan dissident. In 1974 Abraham Serfaty was sentenced to life imprisonment. It was in September 1999 that the new Moroccan king, Mohammed VI, permitted Abraham Serfaty’s return to Morocco.
The Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs is an advisory committee to the Moroccan government on Western Sahara. It was created under Mohammed VI in early 2006, after a new autonomy plan proposed by Morocco to replace the United Nations' Baker Plan. The Polisario Front opposes Morocco's autonomy plan, demanding for a referendum and independence.
Ahmed Moulay Laraki was Moroccan politician and a figure of the national movement and was the Prime Ministers of Morocco between October 6, 1969, and August 6, 1971. He was the 6th prime minister of Morocco and served under king Hassan II. He also served as the foreign minister from 1967 to 1971.
Azzeddine Laraki was a politician who served as Prime Minister of Morocco from 30 September 1986 to 11 August 1992. He was the 10th prime minister of Morocco and served under king Hassan II. He was Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) from 1997 to 2000. He was the first Moroccan official to hold that position.
Since the end of the 1980s, several members of POLISARIO have decided to discontinue their military or political activities for the Polisario Front. Most of them returned from the Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria to Morocco, among them a few founder members and senior officials. Some of them are now actively promoting Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, which Morocco considers its Southern Provinces. Their individual reasons to stop working for POLISARIO, as reported in the media, vary, but include allegations of human rights violations, monopolization and abuse of power, blackmailing and sequestering the refugee population in Tindouf, and squandering foreign aid. They also claim POLISARIO is controlled by the government of Algeria and as one former member of POLISARIO put it, "[was] a group of Moroccan students who were urging the Spanish colonizer to leave and who had never claimed independence or the separation from motherland Morocco."
The Years of Lead was a period of the rule of King Hassan II of Morocco, from roughly the 1960s through the 1980s, marked by state violence and repression against political dissidents and democracy activists.
Abbas El Fassi was Moroccan politician and businessman, prime minister of Morocco from 19 September 2007 to 29 November 2011. El Fassi, a member of the Istiqlal Party, replaced independent Driss Jettou.
Mehdi Ben Barka was a Moroccan politician, head of the left-wing National Union of Popular Forces (UNFP) and secretary of the Tricontinental Conference. An opponent of French Imperialism and King Hassan II, he was "disappeared" in Paris in 1965. Many theories attempting to explain what happened to him were put forward over the years; but it was not until 2018 that details of his disappearance were established by Israeli journalist and author Ronen Bergman in his book Rise And Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations. Based on research and interviews with Israeli intelligence operatives involved in planning the kidnapping of Barka, Bergman concluded that he was murdered by Moroccan agents and French police, who ended up disposing of his body.
Bouchaib Arroub is a Moroccan army general. He held the position of professional chief-of-staff of the Moroccan army between 13 June 2014 and January 2017.
The 1971 Moroccan coup attempt or the Skhirat coup d'état was a failed attempt by rebel military leaders to assassinate King Hassan II of Morocco on 10 July 1971, the day of his forty-second birthday. It was the first of half a dozen other attempted coups d'état during the king's regime.
Abdellah Kadiri was a Moroccan politician and military officer.