Your government has only maintained serious state racism against Tamazight: The World Amazigh Congress in Aziz Akhannouch
This is how the Amazigh World Congress has just summarized the results of a year of operation of the new government of Aziz Akhanouch in a press release which it has just published on the occasion of the battle of Anoual according to the press release. “The overall finding is that apart from promises without an agenda, no significant measure has been taken in favor of the recognition and respect of the rights of the Amazighs” specifies the press release. Going through Law 04.20 of 2020 relating to the new national electronic identity card which excluded Tamazight without being abolished to date, despite clearly violating the Constitution and also Organic Law No. 26-16 of 12/ 09/2019. Without forgetting the head of government Himself Aziz Akhanouch who, on July 14, according to the press release, writes in a tweet about the Moroccan women's football team which qualified for the final phase of the next World Cup, that "it is the first Arab selection which qualifies for the World Cup". Knowing that this government is the only government in the history of Morocco which has managed to have the support of part of the Amazigh movement in Morocco and also knowing that the CMA is an authority which brings together many Amazigh associations across the North Africa and the Diaspora, the debate is therefore inevitable. And that's why AmazighWorld decided to publish the press release in its entirety: Knowing that this government is the only government in the history of Morocco which has managed to have the support of part of the Amazigh movement in Morocco and also knowing that the CMA is an authority which brings together many Amazigh associations across the North Africa and the Diaspora, the debate is therefore inevitable. And that's why AmazighWorld decided to publish the press release in its entirety: Knowing that this government is the only government in the history of Morocco which has managed to have the support of part of the Amazigh movement in Morocco and also knowing that the CMA is an authority which brings together many Amazigh associations across the North Africa and the Diaspora, the debate is therefore inevitable. And that's why AmazighWorld decided to publish the press release in its entirety:
Morocco: the anti-Amazigh policy continues
After almost a year of operation of the new government, it is legitimate to wonder about the measures it would have taken to meet the pressing expectations of the Amazighs.
The overall observation is that, apart from promises without an agenda, no significant measure has been taken in favor of the recognition and respect of the rights of the Amazighs. Even the expected symbolic gesture of official recognition of Yennayer, the Amazigh New Year's Day, as a national holiday has not been made. Tamazight enjoys government support only in its folkloric version and presented as a subculture of Arab culture.
The villainous law 04.20 of 2020 relating to the new national electronic identity card which excludes Tamazight has to date not been abolished. However, it clearly violates the Constitution and Organic Law No. 26-16 of 09/12/2019 and in particular its article 21 which stipulates that "shall be recorded in the Amazigh language, alongside the Arabic language, the information contained in the documents following official documents: the national identity card, the passport, the driving licence, the residence cards of foreigners established in Morocco, the various personal cards and certificates delivered by the administration”. In other words, the government endorses the violation of Moroccan laws and maintains serious state racism against Tamazight.
In January 2022, the head of government announced as great news a budget of 200 million Dirhams (about 20 million Euros) to finance a plan to implement the official character of the Amazigh language, but this budget is insignificant compared to the many projects awaiting completion (education, justice, administration, culture, media, catch-up development plan for marginalized Amazigh territories, etc.). In fact, this budget represents only 0.04% of the State budget, the vast majority of which is intended for the promotion of Arab culture and the development of "useful Morocco", that of the Atlantic coast and the major Arab cities. .
In a significant anecdote, on July 14, the head of government, Mr. Akhenouch, wrote in a tweet about the Moroccan women's football team which qualified for the final phase of the next World Cup, that "it is the first Arab team to qualify for the World Cup. By qualifying this Moroccan team as "Arab", Mr. Akhenouch shows once again that he and his government, like the previous ones, defend foreign interests, while ignoring and even fighting the indigenous culture of this country. This contemptuous attitude towards the Amazighs carries serious dangers for the country.
?Therefore, why would this government be legitimate to lead the country
The anti-Amazigh policy in Morocco has been accompanied in recent years by the emergence of a new current of pseudo-nationalist ideas, which promise "Moroccanity" or "tameghrabit", erected into an ideology which simply aims to drown the Amazighity, land, history, civilization, indigenous language and culture of this country, in triumphant Arabism. It is a new strategy that aims to hide and flout the rights of the Amazighs as indigenous people of Morocco and other Tamazgha countries and to continue the spoliations in particular of their ancestral collective lands and their wealth.
And for all the discordant voices, especially those of the Amazigh movement, the Makhzen offers them nothing other than enslavement by integrating them into "the system" with individual promotions or social marginalization. This process of domestication of the Amazigh movement and civil society in general marks a clear democratic regression and the decline of the fundamental rights of the Amazighs, as they are internationally enshrined in particular in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
With the Rifain people, the CMA celebrates the 101st anniversary of the brilliant victory of the men of Abdelkrim El-Khattabi over the Spanish colonial forces during the battle of Anwal on July 21, 1921. The Rifains then founded the Republic of the Rif, first modern Amazigh state. It took the alliance of the three French, Spanish and Moroccan armies and the use of chemical warfare to defeat the young Rifain State in 1926. For the CMA, this is also an opportunity to firmly denounce the unjust maintenance in detention of Rifain citizens, heavily condemned because of their attachment to the spirit of resistance and freedom bequeathed to them by their illustrious ancestors. We once again demand their immediate release.
The Amazigh World Congress (CMA), an international organization which unites the Amazighs beyond colonial borders and which carries their voice on the international scene, is not spared by this policy of breaking the Amazigh movement. The CMA warns against any attempt at instrumentalization that would target it and firmly reaffirms its infallible attachment to its independence, its moral integrity and its mission to protect and promote the rights of the Amazighs, in all the countries where they live.
The CMA calls on all Amazigh actors, individuals and collectives who refuse the denial of Tamazight and who wish to act quickly and as Free Men, to come together and join forces in order to thwart the anti-Amazigh plan in Morocco and to impose respect full of the Amazighity of this country in all its dimensions.
Paris, 07/18/2972 – 07/30/2022
The CMA Office
http://amazighworld.org/human_rights/index_show.php?id=642934&fbclid=IwAR0PjjueUJtWNymqq1mnmmOieDqIxi1PZAMO0BVhbKKyd9Mx-QuiAyFYd-E