Unemployment Police arrest jobless group threatening suicide

[LalaMimi]

Moroccan police on Thursday broke up a sit-in by 48 unemployed Moroccans who had threatened collective suicide if jobs promised by HM King Mohammed VI were not granted, the group said, Reuters quoted the group as saying.

Under the Moroccan constitution, a letter signed by the Monarch has the authority of a Royal Decree and the Monarch has the power to distribute jobs, both military and civil.

Some members of the so-called National Autonomous Group of Holders of Royal Letters have waited 10 years for a promised job, they said.

Members of the Rabat-based group, which has twice before attempted suicide, had said they planned to kill themselves on March 17 if jobs did not materialise.

Authorities intervened and arrested seven members of the group, accusing them of trying to burn down public offices in the capital. The group claims eight of its members were arrested.

"We found 17 litres of fuel and several Molotov cocktails with them. They wanted to set ministries nearby on fire," an Interior Ministry official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

The National Autonomous Group criticised authorities for heavy-handed tactics in breaking up the sit-in.

"Police beat up members of the group, leaving several injured," the group said in a statement.

Police has been using violence in dealing with unemployed graduates who repeatedly hold sit-ins in front of the Parliament. During the Forum for the Future which was held in Rabat last December and attracted international political dignitaries, demonstrators enjoyed a week of freedom of protest, despite heavy security measures the Moroccan capital city has seldom witnessed.

Royal recruitment letters have already changed the lives of some 3,000 Moroccans, mainly jobless graduates, disabled, poor and inhabitants of the disputed Western Sahara territory.

[Anisa]

Trust the Moroccan police to batter them
No opportunity in Morocco-no wonder they all want to come here.