| Indien deze mail onleesbaar is, klik hier |
|
|
/https%3A%2F%2Fprod-img.standaard.be%2Fpublic%2Fnieuws%2Ffkr07w-australia-bondi-beach-shooting%2Falternates%2FBASE_WIDTH%2FAustralia_Bondi_Beach_Shooting_33174.jpg)
/https%3A%2F%2Fprod-img.standaard.be%2Fpublic%2Fnieuws%2Fptd1ft-displaced-palestinians-shelter-in-a-tent-camp-in-nuseirat%2Falternates%2FBASE_WIDTH%2F2025-12-12T074608Z_1325328582_RC2TEIACVW0R_RTRMADP_3_ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-GAZA.JPG)
/https%3A%2F%2Fprod-img.standaard.be%2Fpublic%2Fnieuws%2Ft565nz-opale-mad-102078.jpg%2Falternates%2FBASE_WIDTH%2FOPALE-MAD-102078.jpg)
|
/https%3A%2F%2Fprod-img.standaard.be%2Fpublic%2Fnieuws%2Fcap741-fpv-pokrovsk-02.jpg%2Falternates%2FBASE_WIDTH%2FFPV%2520Pokrovsk%252002.jpg)
/https%3A%2F%2Fprod-img.standaard.be%2Fpublic%2Fnieuws%2F4f4g86-file83nb6uhi0n9tsw7etnx%2Falternates%2FBASE_SIXTEEN_NINE%2FAFP_87UK39G.jpg)
/https%3A%2F%2Fprod-img.standaard.be%2Fpublic%2Fnieuws%2Fs83cqn-prisoners-released-from-belarus-arrive-at-the-u.s.-embassy-in-vilnius%2Falternates%2FBASE_WIDTH%2F2025-12-13T164650Z_159666353_RC2RFIA0PM3R_RTRMADP_3_USA-BELARUS-PRISONERS.JPG)
|
|
|
|
zondag 14 december 2025
WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE BELGIUM BRUSSELS - De Standaard - OORLOGEN OEKRAÏNE EN MIDDEN-OOSTEN - Zondag 14 december 2025.
WORLD WORLDWIDE SOUTH AMERICA BRAZIL BELEM - (en) Brazil, CAB: A SHOWCASE OF COLONIALISM (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]
Today, November 10, 2025, Belém do Pará hosted the first day of the 30th
edition of the Conference of the Parties (COP30), a meeting on climate
change promoted by the UN, which so far has the participation of 148
countries. ---- This will be the fourth time this event has come to
South America, the first time in Brazil. Heralded with great fanfare by
the Lula (PT)/Alckmin (PSB) and Helder Barbalho (MDB) governments, the
"achievement" of bringing the COP to the Amazon region (to Brazil) has
been sold on the promise of many legacies it will leave behind.
GOVERNING FOR MINING
The federal/state government maintains an image of confronting the
environmental crisis; however, at the first bend in the river, the facts
deforest this image. Let's look at some of the legacies.
In 2021, Helder Barbalho signed a "letter of intent" with six mining
companies, including the Canadian company Belo Sun, which irregularly
purchased land from agrarian reform in the municipality of Senador José
Porfírio, in the state of Pará, for the controversial "Volta Grande
Project," which could become the largest open-pit gold mine in the country.
TEMPORAL FRAMEWORK AND ILLEGAL MINING
The neoliberal policies adopted by state and federal governments and
Congress have only aggravated the environmental issue.
The temporal framework for indigenous lands is a clear example of this,
culminating now in the bill that regulates research and illegal mining
on these lands (PL 1.331/2022), a plan associated with an abundant
workforce, since unemployment and low income affecting the
municipalities encourage young people to seek sustenance in illegal
mining and logging in the region.
The privatization of water and sewage services throughout Brazil via the
sanitation framework, especially in the Amazon region which has been
experienced in several cities, has resulted in large concessions that
have been or are being granted to private companies, mainly Aegea
Saneamento.
The privatization of the Amazon rivers (Madeira, Tocantins, and Tapajós)
under the National Privatization Program (PND) for the concession of
their use for the construction of waterways threatens the lives and
territories of indigenous, quilombola, and traditional peoples who
depend on the rivers for their subsistence.
WILDFIRES AND DROUGHT
The closest example to begin is the detonation of the Pedral do Lourenço
for the implementation of the Tocantins-Araguaia waterway, which
foresees at least two and a half years of explosions, destroying the
habitat of various fish species, a lethal consequence for several
communities.
During 2023, cities in the North and some in the Midwest suffered from
smoke resulting from wildfires in the Amazon. Manaus recorded the second
worst air quality in the world, in addition to facing a severe drought
that affected several municipalities throughout the Amazon region.
HUNGER, THIRST, AND UNSAFE AIR
This drought caused food insecurity and health problems due to the
consumption of non-potable water by riverside communities, quilombola
communities, and indigenous peoples of the region. This scenario was
repeated with greater force in 2024.
Orchestrated by AGRO-BUSINESS-POP, mainly in municipalities of the
so-called deforestation arc, the region recorded record numbers of fire
outbreaks; the smoke generated reached cities in the central-south and
south of the country, intensifying the air pollution process and causing
various respiratory diseases in the population.
AMAZON EXPLOITED BY THE ELITE
Now, more recently, the authorization for oil exploration at the mouth
of the Amazon will cost the existence of unique and essential ecosystems
for the planet, such as the mangroves and reefs located there.
The risk of an oil spill is very high; the impacts on the food and
economic security of fishing and traditional communities will only
reaffirm the Amazon's position as a region of exploitation by national
elites subservient to fossil capitalism, deepening the scenario of
hunger and misery in the region and aggravating the global environmental
crisis.
ANTI-CAPITALISM, BEFORE THE RICH BURN THE WORLD!
Let's not be fooled by the tale of green capitalism widely defended by
the leaders of nation-states. We know well that climate catastrophe is a
political and economic phenomenon, because it is thanks to the
international capitalist system, allied with the economic interests of
nation-states and their local elites, that predatory extraction and
agribusiness sink their claws into territories to suck every last penny
they can from the land.
That's why we shout: LET THE RICH PAY FOR THE CLIMATE CRISIS, since it
is their companies that invade and exploit the land, devastate forests,
and pollute the waters.
Let the rich pay for the destruction driven by maintaining their
parasitism, their whims, the concentration of power, goods, and capital
in their hands. May we be able to drag them from their comfort zone in
the face of the end of the world they have imposed upon us!
https://cabanarquista.com.br/cop-30-uma-vitrine-do-colonialismo/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
edition of the Conference of the Parties (COP30), a meeting on climate
change promoted by the UN, which so far has the participation of 148
countries. ---- This will be the fourth time this event has come to
South America, the first time in Brazil. Heralded with great fanfare by
the Lula (PT)/Alckmin (PSB) and Helder Barbalho (MDB) governments, the
"achievement" of bringing the COP to the Amazon region (to Brazil) has
been sold on the promise of many legacies it will leave behind.
GOVERNING FOR MINING
The federal/state government maintains an image of confronting the
environmental crisis; however, at the first bend in the river, the facts
deforest this image. Let's look at some of the legacies.
In 2021, Helder Barbalho signed a "letter of intent" with six mining
companies, including the Canadian company Belo Sun, which irregularly
purchased land from agrarian reform in the municipality of Senador José
Porfírio, in the state of Pará, for the controversial "Volta Grande
Project," which could become the largest open-pit gold mine in the country.
TEMPORAL FRAMEWORK AND ILLEGAL MINING
The neoliberal policies adopted by state and federal governments and
Congress have only aggravated the environmental issue.
The temporal framework for indigenous lands is a clear example of this,
culminating now in the bill that regulates research and illegal mining
on these lands (PL 1.331/2022), a plan associated with an abundant
workforce, since unemployment and low income affecting the
municipalities encourage young people to seek sustenance in illegal
mining and logging in the region.
The privatization of water and sewage services throughout Brazil via the
sanitation framework, especially in the Amazon region which has been
experienced in several cities, has resulted in large concessions that
have been or are being granted to private companies, mainly Aegea
Saneamento.
The privatization of the Amazon rivers (Madeira, Tocantins, and Tapajós)
under the National Privatization Program (PND) for the concession of
their use for the construction of waterways threatens the lives and
territories of indigenous, quilombola, and traditional peoples who
depend on the rivers for their subsistence.
WILDFIRES AND DROUGHT
The closest example to begin is the detonation of the Pedral do Lourenço
for the implementation of the Tocantins-Araguaia waterway, which
foresees at least two and a half years of explosions, destroying the
habitat of various fish species, a lethal consequence for several
communities.
During 2023, cities in the North and some in the Midwest suffered from
smoke resulting from wildfires in the Amazon. Manaus recorded the second
worst air quality in the world, in addition to facing a severe drought
that affected several municipalities throughout the Amazon region.
HUNGER, THIRST, AND UNSAFE AIR
This drought caused food insecurity and health problems due to the
consumption of non-potable water by riverside communities, quilombola
communities, and indigenous peoples of the region. This scenario was
repeated with greater force in 2024.
Orchestrated by AGRO-BUSINESS-POP, mainly in municipalities of the
so-called deforestation arc, the region recorded record numbers of fire
outbreaks; the smoke generated reached cities in the central-south and
south of the country, intensifying the air pollution process and causing
various respiratory diseases in the population.
AMAZON EXPLOITED BY THE ELITE
Now, more recently, the authorization for oil exploration at the mouth
of the Amazon will cost the existence of unique and essential ecosystems
for the planet, such as the mangroves and reefs located there.
The risk of an oil spill is very high; the impacts on the food and
economic security of fishing and traditional communities will only
reaffirm the Amazon's position as a region of exploitation by national
elites subservient to fossil capitalism, deepening the scenario of
hunger and misery in the region and aggravating the global environmental
crisis.
ANTI-CAPITALISM, BEFORE THE RICH BURN THE WORLD!
Let's not be fooled by the tale of green capitalism widely defended by
the leaders of nation-states. We know well that climate catastrophe is a
political and economic phenomenon, because it is thanks to the
international capitalist system, allied with the economic interests of
nation-states and their local elites, that predatory extraction and
agribusiness sink their claws into territories to suck every last penny
they can from the land.
That's why we shout: LET THE RICH PAY FOR THE CLIMATE CRISIS, since it
is their companies that invade and exploit the land, devastate forests,
and pollute the waters.
Let the rich pay for the destruction driven by maintaining their
parasitism, their whims, the concentration of power, goods, and capital
in their hands. May we be able to drag them from their comfort zone in
the face of the end of the world they have imposed upon us!
https://cabanarquista.com.br/cop-30-uma-vitrine-do-colonialismo/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) France, OCL CA #354 - The Ben Barka Affair: A State Crime (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]
Bachir Ben Barka came to Limoges in October, at the invitation of the
local MRAP (1), to discuss his father, Mehdi Ben Barka, the
circumstances of his disappearance 60 years ago, on October 29, 1965,
and to provide an update on the ongoing judicial investigation. The
evening began with a screening of Simone Bitton's documentary (2), a
very precise and unflinching account of the career of this independence
leader. It is essential for understanding the kind of person he was and
how he became the target of hatred from several intelligence services.
Here are excerpts from an interview given by Bachir Ben Barka on that
evening.
What meaning do Mehdi Ben Barka's commitments in the mid-1960s hold for you?
Bachir Ben Barka: Mehdi Ben Barka was born in 1920. This shows how
deeply he was marked by the history of a significant part of the 20th
century. His was the struggle of Third World peoples for their political
independence, but also for their emancipation from the tutelage of the
former colonial powers, with a view to genuine economic, social, and
cultural development. More than an attentive witness to this history, he
was a leading player.
Within the Afro-Asian Peoples' Solidarity Organization-headquartered in
Cairo-he was the operational head of the Solidarity Fund Committee,
responsible for distributing logistical and material aid to liberation
movements fighting for independence and against apartheid.
The accuracy of his analyses and his profound knowledge of the realities
of the struggles for genuine political and economic independence among
Third World peoples are the reasons why he was chosen to head the
Preparatory Committee for the Conference of Solidarity of the Peoples of
Africa, Asia, and Latin America, better known as the Tricontinental
Conference, to be held in Havana in January 1966 (3).
His thought and actions extended far beyond the Moroccan, Maghreb, and
Arab context, addressing the fundamental issues of the time; they remain
strikingly relevant today: the independence and liberation of Third
World peoples, decolonization and the fight against neo-colonialism,
democracy, human rights, social justice, underdevelopment, and the
building of a new society.
Simone Bitton's film
Biographical Notes on Mehdi Ben Barka
1920: Born in Rabat, when Morocco was under French protectorate, into a
modest family, but his father was a scholar (secretary).
1934: Joined the Moroccan Action Committee, the first nationalist movement.
1937: Joined the National Party for the Implementation of Reforms.
1942: A mathematics student at the Faculty of Sciences in Algiers, he
became vice-president of the Association of North African Students, his
first foray into internationalism. 1943: Mathematics teacher at the
Gouraud High School in Rabat and at the Imperial College, where Moulay
Hassan, the future Hassan II, was a student.
1944: The National Party for the Implementation of Reforms became the
Independence Party (Istiqlal), a right-wing nationalist party. Mehdi Ben
Barka was a founding member and co-signatory of the party's manifesto.
For this reason, he was imprisoned for several months.
1951: Considered "the most dangerous opponent of the colonial presence"
in Morocco (according to General Juin, the Resident General), he was
placed under house arrest south of the Atlas Mountains until 1954.
1955: Participated in the talks that led, on November 16, to the return
of Sultan Mohammed Ben Youssef, who became King Mohammed V, and to the
end of the protectorate (March 2, 1956). 1956: Mehdi Ben Barka presided
over the National Consultative Assembly until his resignation in 1959.
1957: He initiated the "Road of Unity" to reunite the former French
protectorate and the Spanish Rif region in northern Morocco.
1959: He distanced himself from the Istiqlal party, which he considered
too accommodating to conservatives opposed to democratization and
agrarian reform. He founded the National Union of Popular Forces (UNFP).
1961: Ben Barka became an agent of the Czechoslovak secret service (this
information was revealed after the opening of their archives).
1962: In May, at the UNFP congress, he denounced "the duplicity of a
power that calls itself national" and the authoritarianism of Hassan II,
who became king in 1961. On November 16, Ben Barka survived an
assassination attempt disguised as a "road accident." 1963: Having
denounced from abroad what he called a "war of aggression" by Morocco in
the border conflict with Algeria, he was sentenced to death in absentia.
In exile in Cairo and Geneva, he became active in the Organization of
Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa and Asia (OSA), working to advance
the emancipation of peoples and the Third World movement initiated at
the Bandung Conference (1955). He held numerous meetings (Ben Bella,
Nasser, Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara, etc.).
1964: Sentenced to death a second time, on the pretext of plotting
against the king.
1965: While suppressing student and popular demonstrations (on March 23,
the army fired on them in Casablanca: 200 to 400 dead according to Le
Monde), Hassan II considered appealing to the UNFP (National Union of
Popular Forces) and the return of its founder "to solve a problem...".
This possibility was jeopardized by the state of emergency declared in
June and by the arrest of Abdelkader, Mehdi Ben Barka's brother.
From May 1965, Mehdi Ben Barka assumed the role of secretary of the
preparatory committee for the Tricontinental Conference scheduled to
take place in Havana. On October 3, received in Cuba by Fidel Castro, he
issued an appeal against foreign bases, nuclear weapons, racial
segregation, and apartheid.
October 29, 1965: Mehdi Ben Barka was abducted in Paris by two French
police officers and handed over to the Moroccan secret service, which
had been hunting him for months.
What place does your father's memory hold in present-day Morocco?
BBB: During the early years of independent Morocco, before the break
with the Palace, Mehdi Ben Barka, president of the National Consultative
Assembly, began to put into practice his vision of a new society, based
on popular mobilization for regional and national economic and cultural
development projects. One of his achievements, the Unity Road, remained
for a long time the only project to open up the Rif region, which had
been completely neglected by Hassan II's regime. He was also behind the
creation of the two oldest popular education associations still active:
the Moroccan Association for Youth Education (AMEJ) and Toufoula Chaâbia
(Popular Childhood).
Until the end of Hassan II's reign, the regime and its zealots tried in
vain to erase Mehdi Ben Barka's name from the country's history and
popular memory. It was all in vain. Today, numerous avenues, squares,
and educational and cultural institutions bear his name. Thanks to the
work of the Mehdi Ben Barka Institute - Living Memory, his writings are
widely disseminated. The young protesters of the Moroccan "Arab Spring"
adopted the demands contained in his writings as slogans, denouncing the
country's economic and social decay after half a century of anti-popular
policies and endorsing his vision of a society of justice, equality, and
dignity.
How did you and your family experience your father's disappearance, both
at the time and afterward? Who did you turn to for support?
BBB: Even though we knew he was under threat from agents of the Moroccan
regime, the news of my father's abduction in Paris surprised and
devastated us. We were convinced that, despite the collusion we knew
existed between the Moroccan and French police, he was relatively safe
in France. The trap was able to close on him because the organizers of
the crime enlisted the help of real French police officers.
We had been living in Cairo for a year, ever since my father had made us
leave Morocco after the pressure from the security services became too
intense. For several weeks, we held onto the hope that the investigation
would lead to his release. Alas, we had to accept his disappearance.
The legal and political battle for the truth, which began as soon as the
kidnapping was announced, would continue to this day. Initially, it was
my uncle Abdelkader, who was in Paris, who led the fight with the
support of my father's political allies and numerous prominent figures
within the Committee for the Truth about the Ben Barka Affair (4).
Since 1975, to prevent the case from being definitively closed, I myself
have filed a second complaint for kidnapping and murder. It is still
under investigation at the Paris Judicial Court. In this fight for
truth, justice, and remembrance, and to end the impunity of criminals,
we have the support of the entire human rights movement in Morocco and
France, as well as numerous progressive and democratic associations and
organizations, including MRAP, which has supported us from the very
beginning.
You have taken steps to ensure that justice is served regarding the
kidnapping and assassination of your father. What has been the outcome?
BBB: The complaint for kidnapping, unlawful confinement, and murder,
filed in October 1975, is still under investigation at the Paris
Judicial Court. The judge in charge of the case must be the twelfth or
thirteenth, nearly fifty years after this second complaint and sixty
years since the crime. Our initial questions remain unanswered: How did
Mehdi Ben Barka die? Who were his assassins? Where is his grave? Have
all those responsible been held accountable?
These are all essential questions for my family, so they can finally
learn the truth and begin to grieve; but they are also necessary for us
as citizens, faced with a state crime (or crimes) with implications that
extend far beyond the legal sphere.
It is undeniable that the Moroccan political responsibility for the
kidnapping lies at the highest levels of the Moroccan regime. The
Moroccan Minister of the Interior and the head of security were tasked
with carrying out this criminal mission; notorious French criminals were
used; and the complicity of French and international intelligence
services (France, Israel (5), and the United States) and the police is
neither "vulgar" nor "minor (6)."
State interests, primarily Moroccan and French, remain the major
obstacle to justice and the establishment of the full truth about the
kidnapping and subsequent disappearance of Mehdi Ben Barka, a leading
figure in the Moroccan opposition and a symbol of the international
movement of solidarity among Third World peoples.
Press conference in Havana in 1965
An endless affair
November 2, 1965: The Ben Barka family files a civil suit. The
investigation is entrusted to Louis Zollinger, the first of a dozen
judges assigned to the case.
November 3: Mohamed Oufkir, Morocco's Minister of the Interior, is
received at the Ministry of the Interior by his counterpart, Roger Frey,
and the Prefect of Police, Maurice Papon.
November 11-13: Police officers Souchon and Voitot, in custody, confess
to their involvement in the kidnapping. January 10, 1966: L'Express
features the headline "I Saw Ben Barka Killed. A Witness's Account,"
according to Georges Figon, interviewed by Jacques Derogy and
Jean-François Kahn.
January 17, 1966: Figon is found dead at his home, officially ruled a
suicide.
February 21, 1966: At a press conference, de Gaulle acknowledges the
involvement of members of the French intelligence services but denies
any complicity by high-ranking officials.
September 5, 1966: The trial of the accused opens, but is interrupted by
the arrival of Ahmed Dlimi, the head of Moroccan security, who
surrenders himself; the trial resumes on April 17, 1967.
November 8: De Gaulle assures Mehdi Ben Barka's mother of the
"promptness" of the justice system.
February 21, 1967: Secret trial in Israel. The editor-in-chief of the
weekly magazine Bul was sentenced to one year in prison for accusing
Mossad. This accusation was repeated by Haaretz in March 1987 and by
Yediot Aharonot in April 2015.
June 5, 1967: The trial in Paris concluded. Antoine Lopez, station
manager at Orly Airport and informant for the Moroccan intelligence
services and the SDECE (French external intelligence agency), and police
officer Louis Souchon were the only ones sentenced to prison; Dlimi was
acquitted; Oufkir, police officer Miloud Tounsi (alias Larbi Chtouki),
Boucheseiche, and the three thugs in his gang were sentenced in absentia
to life imprisonment.
August 16, 1972: Attempted assassination of the king by Mohamed Oufkir,
then Minister of Defense, who was likely executed, perhaps by Ahmed
Dlimi, himself the victim of a "car accident" on January 25, 1983.
October 22, 1975: Bachir Ben Barka files a complaint for kidnapping,
unlawful confinement, and murder.
1976: The CIA admits to possessing 1,846 documents concerning Ben Barka,
without making them public.
July 23, 1999: Death of Hassan II. On November 27, the Ben Barka family
is warmly received in Morocco. An avenue in Rabat is named after Mehdi
Ben Barka.
1999, 2004, 2005: Partial declassification of SDECE documents:
disappointing results.
October 22, 2007: Arrest warrants issued by Judge Patrick Ramaël against
former police commissioner Miloud Tounsi and Gendarmerie General Hosni
Benslimane were not acted upon due to Moroccan obstruction and the
French judicial authorities' failure to forward the warrants to Interpol.
July 29 and August 3, 2010: A search of the DGSE (General Directorate
for External Security) was thwarted by the National Security Commission.
October 23, 2014: Judge Cyril Pasquaux reissued the international arrest
warrants (which are not enforceable outside the Schengen Area).
Today: The judicial investigation is still ongoing.
In your opinion, would a Ben Barka case still be possible today?
BBB: Seven years ago, Adnan Khashoggi, an opponent of the Saudi Arabian
regime, entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He did not leave alive.
The horror of his tragic death demonstrates what those carrying out a
decision made at the highest level are capable of when they dare to act
on the soil of a foreign state. What happened next? Nothing, or almost
nothing. A few accomplices were tried and executed in Saudi Arabia;
reasons of state prevailed, and those who ordered the attack were once
again deemed acceptable.
In 1972, a Moroccan trade union activist, Houcine El Manouzi, was
kidnapped in Tunis and then handed over to the Moroccan authorities.
Since then, his fate has remained unknown to his family and friends.
In France, a troubling phenomenon has emerged: since 1965, dozens of
political assassinations have been committed on French soil. The victims
were opponents of colonial, oppressive, and anti-democratic regimes.
These assassinations share common characteristics: the perpetrators
acted with impunity, almost certain they faced no consequences; they
benefited from complicity within France and/or a benevolent inaction on
the part of the French police; and the perpetrators and those who
ordered these crimes subsequently enjoyed scandalous impunity. Nearly
all the cases have been closed, with dismissals issued. The few cases
still under investigation are those of the assassinations of three
Kurdish activists in 2015, a Tamil activist, and, the oldest of these,
Mehdi Ben Barka. Thanks to the perseverance and determination of the
families, the cases relating to the assassinations of Henri Curiel and
Dulcie September have been reopened. However, national security secrecy
continues to hinder the course of justice.
Commemorative event marking the 50th anniversary of his disappearance
The Mossad's involvement
According to journalists from Yediot Aharonot, the Mossad, Israel's
intelligence and assassination service, had already worked for France
(attacks against members of the FLN). The Mossad offered Morocco a deal:
if Morocco facilitated the emigration of Moroccan Jews to Israel, and if
Morocco provided Israel with all internal discussions within the Arab
League, the Mossad would be responsible for monitoring and locating
Mehdi Ben Barka.
This is what was done: Mossad provided Ben Barka's contact information
in Geneva, supplied false documents to several French and Moroccan
individuals, conceived and organized the production of a documentary
that served as a pretext to bring Ben Barka to Paris... but Mossad
carefully avoided directly participating in his abduction and execution.
Notes
1. The Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Between Peoples has
been involved from the outset in supporting the Ben Barka family in
their efforts to establish the truth.
2. Ben Barka, the Moroccan Equation, a film produced in 2001 with the
support of Arte.
3. This initiative was largely linked to the Soviet bloc, but Ben Barka
also sought to forge ties with other powers (China, India, etc.).
4. The driving force behind this committee, its secretary, was the
historian and communist-libertarian activist Daniel Guérin, who had
managed to bring together 16 figures of very different political
persuasions around this cause (during the initial appeal) (Mauriac,
Aragon, D'Astier de la Vigerie, Jean Rostand, René Cassin, Alain Savary,
etc.). The committee's archives are held at La Contemporaine in Nanterre.
5. See the box on the role of Mossad.
6. Terms used by General de Gaulle to exonerate the French state from
all responsibility by shifting it onto the two police officers who
carried out the arrest.
http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4566
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
local MRAP (1), to discuss his father, Mehdi Ben Barka, the
circumstances of his disappearance 60 years ago, on October 29, 1965,
and to provide an update on the ongoing judicial investigation. The
evening began with a screening of Simone Bitton's documentary (2), a
very precise and unflinching account of the career of this independence
leader. It is essential for understanding the kind of person he was and
how he became the target of hatred from several intelligence services.
Here are excerpts from an interview given by Bachir Ben Barka on that
evening.
What meaning do Mehdi Ben Barka's commitments in the mid-1960s hold for you?
Bachir Ben Barka: Mehdi Ben Barka was born in 1920. This shows how
deeply he was marked by the history of a significant part of the 20th
century. His was the struggle of Third World peoples for their political
independence, but also for their emancipation from the tutelage of the
former colonial powers, with a view to genuine economic, social, and
cultural development. More than an attentive witness to this history, he
was a leading player.
Within the Afro-Asian Peoples' Solidarity Organization-headquartered in
Cairo-he was the operational head of the Solidarity Fund Committee,
responsible for distributing logistical and material aid to liberation
movements fighting for independence and against apartheid.
The accuracy of his analyses and his profound knowledge of the realities
of the struggles for genuine political and economic independence among
Third World peoples are the reasons why he was chosen to head the
Preparatory Committee for the Conference of Solidarity of the Peoples of
Africa, Asia, and Latin America, better known as the Tricontinental
Conference, to be held in Havana in January 1966 (3).
His thought and actions extended far beyond the Moroccan, Maghreb, and
Arab context, addressing the fundamental issues of the time; they remain
strikingly relevant today: the independence and liberation of Third
World peoples, decolonization and the fight against neo-colonialism,
democracy, human rights, social justice, underdevelopment, and the
building of a new society.
Simone Bitton's film
Biographical Notes on Mehdi Ben Barka
1920: Born in Rabat, when Morocco was under French protectorate, into a
modest family, but his father was a scholar (secretary).
1934: Joined the Moroccan Action Committee, the first nationalist movement.
1937: Joined the National Party for the Implementation of Reforms.
1942: A mathematics student at the Faculty of Sciences in Algiers, he
became vice-president of the Association of North African Students, his
first foray into internationalism. 1943: Mathematics teacher at the
Gouraud High School in Rabat and at the Imperial College, where Moulay
Hassan, the future Hassan II, was a student.
1944: The National Party for the Implementation of Reforms became the
Independence Party (Istiqlal), a right-wing nationalist party. Mehdi Ben
Barka was a founding member and co-signatory of the party's manifesto.
For this reason, he was imprisoned for several months.
1951: Considered "the most dangerous opponent of the colonial presence"
in Morocco (according to General Juin, the Resident General), he was
placed under house arrest south of the Atlas Mountains until 1954.
1955: Participated in the talks that led, on November 16, to the return
of Sultan Mohammed Ben Youssef, who became King Mohammed V, and to the
end of the protectorate (March 2, 1956). 1956: Mehdi Ben Barka presided
over the National Consultative Assembly until his resignation in 1959.
1957: He initiated the "Road of Unity" to reunite the former French
protectorate and the Spanish Rif region in northern Morocco.
1959: He distanced himself from the Istiqlal party, which he considered
too accommodating to conservatives opposed to democratization and
agrarian reform. He founded the National Union of Popular Forces (UNFP).
1961: Ben Barka became an agent of the Czechoslovak secret service (this
information was revealed after the opening of their archives).
1962: In May, at the UNFP congress, he denounced "the duplicity of a
power that calls itself national" and the authoritarianism of Hassan II,
who became king in 1961. On November 16, Ben Barka survived an
assassination attempt disguised as a "road accident." 1963: Having
denounced from abroad what he called a "war of aggression" by Morocco in
the border conflict with Algeria, he was sentenced to death in absentia.
In exile in Cairo and Geneva, he became active in the Organization of
Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa and Asia (OSA), working to advance
the emancipation of peoples and the Third World movement initiated at
the Bandung Conference (1955). He held numerous meetings (Ben Bella,
Nasser, Ho Chi Minh, Che Guevara, etc.).
1964: Sentenced to death a second time, on the pretext of plotting
against the king.
1965: While suppressing student and popular demonstrations (on March 23,
the army fired on them in Casablanca: 200 to 400 dead according to Le
Monde), Hassan II considered appealing to the UNFP (National Union of
Popular Forces) and the return of its founder "to solve a problem...".
This possibility was jeopardized by the state of emergency declared in
June and by the arrest of Abdelkader, Mehdi Ben Barka's brother.
From May 1965, Mehdi Ben Barka assumed the role of secretary of the
preparatory committee for the Tricontinental Conference scheduled to
take place in Havana. On October 3, received in Cuba by Fidel Castro, he
issued an appeal against foreign bases, nuclear weapons, racial
segregation, and apartheid.
October 29, 1965: Mehdi Ben Barka was abducted in Paris by two French
police officers and handed over to the Moroccan secret service, which
had been hunting him for months.
What place does your father's memory hold in present-day Morocco?
BBB: During the early years of independent Morocco, before the break
with the Palace, Mehdi Ben Barka, president of the National Consultative
Assembly, began to put into practice his vision of a new society, based
on popular mobilization for regional and national economic and cultural
development projects. One of his achievements, the Unity Road, remained
for a long time the only project to open up the Rif region, which had
been completely neglected by Hassan II's regime. He was also behind the
creation of the two oldest popular education associations still active:
the Moroccan Association for Youth Education (AMEJ) and Toufoula Chaâbia
(Popular Childhood).
Until the end of Hassan II's reign, the regime and its zealots tried in
vain to erase Mehdi Ben Barka's name from the country's history and
popular memory. It was all in vain. Today, numerous avenues, squares,
and educational and cultural institutions bear his name. Thanks to the
work of the Mehdi Ben Barka Institute - Living Memory, his writings are
widely disseminated. The young protesters of the Moroccan "Arab Spring"
adopted the demands contained in his writings as slogans, denouncing the
country's economic and social decay after half a century of anti-popular
policies and endorsing his vision of a society of justice, equality, and
dignity.
How did you and your family experience your father's disappearance, both
at the time and afterward? Who did you turn to for support?
BBB: Even though we knew he was under threat from agents of the Moroccan
regime, the news of my father's abduction in Paris surprised and
devastated us. We were convinced that, despite the collusion we knew
existed between the Moroccan and French police, he was relatively safe
in France. The trap was able to close on him because the organizers of
the crime enlisted the help of real French police officers.
We had been living in Cairo for a year, ever since my father had made us
leave Morocco after the pressure from the security services became too
intense. For several weeks, we held onto the hope that the investigation
would lead to his release. Alas, we had to accept his disappearance.
The legal and political battle for the truth, which began as soon as the
kidnapping was announced, would continue to this day. Initially, it was
my uncle Abdelkader, who was in Paris, who led the fight with the
support of my father's political allies and numerous prominent figures
within the Committee for the Truth about the Ben Barka Affair (4).
Since 1975, to prevent the case from being definitively closed, I myself
have filed a second complaint for kidnapping and murder. It is still
under investigation at the Paris Judicial Court. In this fight for
truth, justice, and remembrance, and to end the impunity of criminals,
we have the support of the entire human rights movement in Morocco and
France, as well as numerous progressive and democratic associations and
organizations, including MRAP, which has supported us from the very
beginning.
You have taken steps to ensure that justice is served regarding the
kidnapping and assassination of your father. What has been the outcome?
BBB: The complaint for kidnapping, unlawful confinement, and murder,
filed in October 1975, is still under investigation at the Paris
Judicial Court. The judge in charge of the case must be the twelfth or
thirteenth, nearly fifty years after this second complaint and sixty
years since the crime. Our initial questions remain unanswered: How did
Mehdi Ben Barka die? Who were his assassins? Where is his grave? Have
all those responsible been held accountable?
These are all essential questions for my family, so they can finally
learn the truth and begin to grieve; but they are also necessary for us
as citizens, faced with a state crime (or crimes) with implications that
extend far beyond the legal sphere.
It is undeniable that the Moroccan political responsibility for the
kidnapping lies at the highest levels of the Moroccan regime. The
Moroccan Minister of the Interior and the head of security were tasked
with carrying out this criminal mission; notorious French criminals were
used; and the complicity of French and international intelligence
services (France, Israel (5), and the United States) and the police is
neither "vulgar" nor "minor (6)."
State interests, primarily Moroccan and French, remain the major
obstacle to justice and the establishment of the full truth about the
kidnapping and subsequent disappearance of Mehdi Ben Barka, a leading
figure in the Moroccan opposition and a symbol of the international
movement of solidarity among Third World peoples.
Press conference in Havana in 1965
An endless affair
November 2, 1965: The Ben Barka family files a civil suit. The
investigation is entrusted to Louis Zollinger, the first of a dozen
judges assigned to the case.
November 3: Mohamed Oufkir, Morocco's Minister of the Interior, is
received at the Ministry of the Interior by his counterpart, Roger Frey,
and the Prefect of Police, Maurice Papon.
November 11-13: Police officers Souchon and Voitot, in custody, confess
to their involvement in the kidnapping. January 10, 1966: L'Express
features the headline "I Saw Ben Barka Killed. A Witness's Account,"
according to Georges Figon, interviewed by Jacques Derogy and
Jean-François Kahn.
January 17, 1966: Figon is found dead at his home, officially ruled a
suicide.
February 21, 1966: At a press conference, de Gaulle acknowledges the
involvement of members of the French intelligence services but denies
any complicity by high-ranking officials.
September 5, 1966: The trial of the accused opens, but is interrupted by
the arrival of Ahmed Dlimi, the head of Moroccan security, who
surrenders himself; the trial resumes on April 17, 1967.
November 8: De Gaulle assures Mehdi Ben Barka's mother of the
"promptness" of the justice system.
February 21, 1967: Secret trial in Israel. The editor-in-chief of the
weekly magazine Bul was sentenced to one year in prison for accusing
Mossad. This accusation was repeated by Haaretz in March 1987 and by
Yediot Aharonot in April 2015.
June 5, 1967: The trial in Paris concluded. Antoine Lopez, station
manager at Orly Airport and informant for the Moroccan intelligence
services and the SDECE (French external intelligence agency), and police
officer Louis Souchon were the only ones sentenced to prison; Dlimi was
acquitted; Oufkir, police officer Miloud Tounsi (alias Larbi Chtouki),
Boucheseiche, and the three thugs in his gang were sentenced in absentia
to life imprisonment.
August 16, 1972: Attempted assassination of the king by Mohamed Oufkir,
then Minister of Defense, who was likely executed, perhaps by Ahmed
Dlimi, himself the victim of a "car accident" on January 25, 1983.
October 22, 1975: Bachir Ben Barka files a complaint for kidnapping,
unlawful confinement, and murder.
1976: The CIA admits to possessing 1,846 documents concerning Ben Barka,
without making them public.
July 23, 1999: Death of Hassan II. On November 27, the Ben Barka family
is warmly received in Morocco. An avenue in Rabat is named after Mehdi
Ben Barka.
1999, 2004, 2005: Partial declassification of SDECE documents:
disappointing results.
October 22, 2007: Arrest warrants issued by Judge Patrick Ramaël against
former police commissioner Miloud Tounsi and Gendarmerie General Hosni
Benslimane were not acted upon due to Moroccan obstruction and the
French judicial authorities' failure to forward the warrants to Interpol.
July 29 and August 3, 2010: A search of the DGSE (General Directorate
for External Security) was thwarted by the National Security Commission.
October 23, 2014: Judge Cyril Pasquaux reissued the international arrest
warrants (which are not enforceable outside the Schengen Area).
Today: The judicial investigation is still ongoing.
In your opinion, would a Ben Barka case still be possible today?
BBB: Seven years ago, Adnan Khashoggi, an opponent of the Saudi Arabian
regime, entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He did not leave alive.
The horror of his tragic death demonstrates what those carrying out a
decision made at the highest level are capable of when they dare to act
on the soil of a foreign state. What happened next? Nothing, or almost
nothing. A few accomplices were tried and executed in Saudi Arabia;
reasons of state prevailed, and those who ordered the attack were once
again deemed acceptable.
In 1972, a Moroccan trade union activist, Houcine El Manouzi, was
kidnapped in Tunis and then handed over to the Moroccan authorities.
Since then, his fate has remained unknown to his family and friends.
In France, a troubling phenomenon has emerged: since 1965, dozens of
political assassinations have been committed on French soil. The victims
were opponents of colonial, oppressive, and anti-democratic regimes.
These assassinations share common characteristics: the perpetrators
acted with impunity, almost certain they faced no consequences; they
benefited from complicity within France and/or a benevolent inaction on
the part of the French police; and the perpetrators and those who
ordered these crimes subsequently enjoyed scandalous impunity. Nearly
all the cases have been closed, with dismissals issued. The few cases
still under investigation are those of the assassinations of three
Kurdish activists in 2015, a Tamil activist, and, the oldest of these,
Mehdi Ben Barka. Thanks to the perseverance and determination of the
families, the cases relating to the assassinations of Henri Curiel and
Dulcie September have been reopened. However, national security secrecy
continues to hinder the course of justice.
Commemorative event marking the 50th anniversary of his disappearance
The Mossad's involvement
According to journalists from Yediot Aharonot, the Mossad, Israel's
intelligence and assassination service, had already worked for France
(attacks against members of the FLN). The Mossad offered Morocco a deal:
if Morocco facilitated the emigration of Moroccan Jews to Israel, and if
Morocco provided Israel with all internal discussions within the Arab
League, the Mossad would be responsible for monitoring and locating
Mehdi Ben Barka.
This is what was done: Mossad provided Ben Barka's contact information
in Geneva, supplied false documents to several French and Moroccan
individuals, conceived and organized the production of a documentary
that served as a pretext to bring Ben Barka to Paris... but Mossad
carefully avoided directly participating in his abduction and execution.
Notes
1. The Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Between Peoples has
been involved from the outset in supporting the Ben Barka family in
their efforts to establish the truth.
2. Ben Barka, the Moroccan Equation, a film produced in 2001 with the
support of Arte.
3. This initiative was largely linked to the Soviet bloc, but Ben Barka
also sought to forge ties with other powers (China, India, etc.).
4. The driving force behind this committee, its secretary, was the
historian and communist-libertarian activist Daniel Guérin, who had
managed to bring together 16 figures of very different political
persuasions around this cause (during the initial appeal) (Mauriac,
Aragon, D'Astier de la Vigerie, Jean Rostand, René Cassin, Alain Savary,
etc.). The committee's archives are held at La Contemporaine in Nanterre.
5. See the box on the role of Mossad.
6. Terms used by General de Gaulle to exonerate the French state from
all responsibility by shifting it onto the two police officers who
carried out the arrest.
http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4566
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Abonneren op:
Reacties (Atom)