Cancellation of Lavrov's visit Did the Russian mediation between Morocco and Algeria fail before it began?

Opinions and analyzes differed on the reasons for canceling Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's scheduled visit to Algeria and Morocco. Some suggested that the Russian side was trying to mediate between the two sides in the desert crisis.

Earlier this month, the Russian President's Special Envoy to the Middle East and African Countries, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov announced that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov intends to visit Palestine, Israel, Morocco and Algeria, on an official trip to discuss with these parties some files related to common interest.

Lavrov also intended, during his visit to Morocco, to attend the meeting of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum at the level of foreign ministers, to be organized in Marrakesh.

At a time when preparations were officially launched to receive the Russian Foreign Minister, the latter announced the cancellation of his scheduled visit to Algeria and Morocco, thus opening the door to many interpretations and analyzes about the reasons for the sudden decision and its background.

Why did Lavrov cancel his visit?

After officially announcing the cancellation of his visit to Algeria and Morocco, Lavrov spoke in a media statement, on Wednesday, December 15th, about the Sahara crisis, the thorny file in the relations between the two neighbors, Algeria and Morocco.

The Russian minister stressed that "the crisis in Western Sahara, like any crisis in the world, must be resolved on the basis of respect and implementation of UN Security Council resolutions."

Speaking about the necessity of settling the conflict, he stressed that "it must be conducted in accordance with United Nations resolutions that called for direct negotiations between the Polisario Front and Morocco."

Lavrov noted that "in light of the dangers of escalation in this part of Africa, influential countries must call on all parties to exercise restraint and insist on political and diplomatic methods of settlement."

At the end of his speech, he expressed his country's continuous support for the stability of the situation in West Africa, especially in the Western Sahara region, regretting at the same time the lack of any development in the current situations, as he put it.

Accordingly, experts and analysts considered that the coincidence of Lavrov’s statements with his cancellation of his scheduled visit to Algeria and Morocco, and the cancellation of the meeting of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum, to which Algeria refused to join, may carry with it strenuous efforts by Moscow to mediate between the two conflicting sides to reach a solution to the Sahara crisis. This is due to the great importance that the Sahel region has for Russia.

While many analysts agree with this possibility, others on the other hand say the opposite, considering that the purpose of the Russian visit is primarily economic, and has nothing to do with the file of the Sahara crisis.

Activists and analysts in this context consider that Lavrov's visit was initially scheduled, during the month of last October, and was canceled at that time for the first time, and some opinions believe that the reason for the cancellation relates to the priorities of the stage facing Moscow, which is mainly represented in the accelerating events on the border. with Ukraine.

Will Russia's mediation succeed in resolving the conflict?

Within the framework of the recent rapprochement that it achieved in its relations with Algeria and Morocco, Russia seeks to play a pivotal role in the Sahara crisis, which ignited the crisis between the two neighbors, and the dispute between them extended to a complete estrangement, amid the inability of all regional and international parties to find consensual solutions. So.

On October 20, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov received a delegation from the Polisario Front, to discuss prospects for settling the conflict in Western Sahara.

Following the meeting that brought the two sides together, coinciding with the Security Council’s deliberations on the status of Western Sahara, Bogdanov met the next day, October 21, with Morocco’s Ambassador to Moscow Lotfi Bouchara, and the two sides talked about means of joint cooperation and the Sahara crisis.

At that time, the Russian side reiterated its firm position on finding a political solution to the long-standing problem between Morocco and the Polisario Front, in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions.

Thus, many opinions tend to believe that canceling Lavrov's visit is often a means of mediating pressure to resolve the crisis, which has reached a dead end. Especially after the statements he made following his decision, which seemed to complement what Moscow had emphasized earlier, with regard to the Sahara file.

Based on this, it seems that the most important question is whether there will be an echo of these Russian steps, which coincide with the steps taken by Rabat and Algeria in order to strengthen their bilateral relations with Moscow, which in turn aspires to restore its influence in Africa and is thus considered a crisis The desert is a stumbling block in its path, according to experts and analysts.

From the worst political prison to a space for preserving memory Get to know Tazmamart prison in Morocco

The head of the Moroccan National Council for Human Rights visited Tazmamart Prison, the most famous of the political prisons during the “Years of Lead,” to see the restoration work and turn it into a space to preserve the memory of that era in which the country lived in fairness to its victims and reconciliation with the past.

Tazmamart prison was considered one of the most famous Moroccan political prisons during the years of "embers and bullets" in the country during the second half of the last century. Where the harsh natural conditions were allied with the desolation and pain of the prison against the secret detainees, politicians or accused of plotting failed coups, feeding on their tortured bodies.

Until recently, Tazmamart remained a stain in the Kingdom's human rights record. The Moroccan authorities were determined to do justice to its victims, and the victims of the entire era. At the beginning of the third millennium, Tazmamart launched a national reconciliation initiative. The initiative that recommended transforming the old prison camp into a space for preserving memory, and a witness to facts that cut the country apart with the repetition of its practices.

Tazmamart in a new look

The site of Tazmamart prison, previously secret, witnessed a visit by a committee from the Moroccan National Council for Human Rights, to see the progress of its restoration work and turn it into a space for preserving memory. The committee chaired by the President of the Council, Amina Bouayach, said that "the works have reached 95% of their completion, and soon the site will be reopened to serve as a space for immortalizing the memory of its victims and will bring social and cultural benefits to the residents of the surrounding area."

Tasmamart pain

Tazmamart prison was one of the bloodiest Moroccan political prisons. It is located in a desolate area between the High Atlas Mountains, where the natural conditions exacerbate the cruelty of the torture that the jailers inflict on their victims. The construction of this prison dates back to the colonial era, when the French occupiers imprisoned Moroccan resistance fighters.

While it was reopened in secret in 1973, after the second coup attempt against King Hassan II, and all the soldiers who planned to overthrow him on both occasions were detained there. The prison includes 58 dark solitary cells, distributed among two buildings that do not enter the sun and have no ventilation holes. Where a number of prisoners died from the effects of cold, hunger and diseases on their health.

Ahmed Al-Marzouki, a survivor of Tazmamart prison after spending nearly two decades in it, recounts in his memoirs: “We endured the bitter cold in the cell-refrigerator throughout the winter months while we were half-naked barefoot, and suffocated to fainting at times from overheating, lack of ventilation and the overwhelming stench in the summer, and our guts were torn by saws from horrific hunger for nearly five centuries, and some of us were bitten by scorpions, and the hordes of insects that lived with us in the dark.”

The survivors of that infamous place agree that the intent of their confinement made their death slower and more torturous, in complete isolation from the outside world. Tazmamart remained a secret until it was spotted by chance in 1989 by French journalists who were reporting in the region. Under the influence of the media uproar, Parliamentarian Mohamed Bensaïd Ait Yedder of the People's Democratic Action Organization took the initiative to ask a question about the fate of the detainees there. While those who remained in prison were released on October 23, 1991.

Equity and Reconciliation Initiative

Morocco launched an initiative for equity and reconciliation with the era of human rights violations that the country experienced during the second half of the twentieth century, or what was known in the media as the "years of embers and bullets." King Mohammed VI appointed for this matter a commission charged with documenting that memory and compensating the victims of that era.

The IER was specifically required to look into cases of enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention between 1956 and 1999. and make recommendations on financial compensation, psychological and medical care, and social reintegration for victims. Among the most prominent of those recommendations were: "Specific measures to commemorate human rights violations, as well as to ensure that they are not repeated, address their effects, and restore confidence in the rule of law and respect for human rights."

Since its inauguration in 2004, until the date of submitting its final report in 2005, the commission has organized hearings for 10,000 victims, as well as archival research and interviews with former government officials. In its final report, the commission concluded that 742 of the forcibly disappeared persons had died, thus succeeding in determining their fate, while failing to resolve 66 files. The Equity and Reconciliation Commission resolved 4,677 cases, recommended compensation for 3,657 victims, and created an archive containing more than 20,000 personal testimonies of victims or witnesses to crimes committed during that era.