CONFIDENTIAL
MOROCCO
Report by HM Embassy,
Rabat
General Observations
Those members of the Embassy who have served elsewhere in the Middle East are agreed in considering the Moroccan perform- ance in the human rights field as a comparatively good one, despite Morocco's generally adverse reputation abroad.
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There is no generally accepted estimate of the number of people now imprisoned without trial in Morocco but it is unlikely to exceed the low hundreds
(in a population approaching 18 millions). Stories of arrest and disappearances circulated after the coups of 1971 and 1972 but are now rare. In spite of administrative delays most of those arrested are eventually brought to public trial.
The
The police and more rarely the prison authorities in Morocco undoubtedly use unnecessary brutality, occasionally to the government's embarassment. employment of brutal methods stems more from tradition and over-zealousness than from any consistent policy of the use of torture.
Slavery is illegal and in any strict definition does not exist although some forms of farm and domestic labour in isolated rural areas may retain some characteristics of servitude.
A haphazard system of press censorship does not prevent the Moroccan press from attaining a greater freedom of expression than is normal in the Middle East. The censorship is objected to locally more because of its incompetence than its restrictive effect. There is a single broadcasting and television
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