Tuesday, August 3, 1999

Al Ahram

+++"Paying homage to King Hassan" by Dalal Abu Ghazaleh, Al-Ahram Weekly 29 July - 4 August 1999

HEADING:"Two million Moroccans and 40 world leaders joined to pay their final respects to King Hassan II - the Arab world's longest ruling monarch and a key regional peace maker"

QUOTES FROM TEXT:"King Hassan ... witnessed the early years of war against the Arab world's key enemy, Israel, and later played a major role in the movement towards making peace with Tel Aviv."

"two million ... lined the 4km funeral route."

"Arab diplomatic sourcwes said that Assad had cancelled his plans to take part in the funeral ... folowing statements made by Israel's Foreign Minister David Levy...that a meeting between Assad and Barak was possible.
Assad reportedly felt that this would have been an undeserved reward for Israel's Barak before he had proved his seriousness and commitment to meet Syrian demands of complete Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights."

"both Israeli and Western media played up the brief encounter between Barak and Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika."

EXCERPTS:
"It was a real nightmare," commented one Western security official who had the extremely difficult task of protecting his leader during the four-hour funeral ceremony of King Hassan II.
. . .
King Hassan,... witnessed the early years of war against the Arab world's key enemy, Israel, and later played a major role in the movement towards making peace with Tel Aviv. {IMRA: Not Jerusalem or Israel?}
. . .

The two million Moroccans who took part in Hassan's funeral lined the 4km funeral route. At one point, row upon row of white-robed palace officials, police and army troops failed to prevent hundreds of wailing Moroccans from trampling through the barricades and surging towards Hassan's coffin.

The jostling crowd made the movement of the procession very difficult. King Mohamed walked directly behind his father's casket but both he and the leading foreign dignitaries, US President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, President Hosni Mubarak, French President Jacques Chirac, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, King Juan Carlos of Spain and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, were crushed together until bodyguards managed to force a way through for the principal mourners.
. . .
Earlier expectations that King Hassan's funeral would turn into a stage for dramatic developments in Arab-Israeli peace negotiations were dashed, however, when Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad failed to show up... .
. . .
Arab diplomatic sources said that Assad had cancelled his plan to take part in the funeral at the last minute and had sent Syrian Vice-President Zuhair Masharqa instead. ... following statements made by Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy who had predicted that a meeting between Assad and Barak was possible.

Assad reportedly felt that this would have been an undeserved reward for Israel's Barak before he had proved his seriousness and commitment to meet Syrian demands of a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights.

US President Clinton said he was upset that Assad had not attended the funeral but suggested that he might be unwell.
. . .
media played up the brief encounter between Barak and Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika.. . . While shaking hands with former Israeli premier Shimon Peres, Bouteflika told him that "this is the first time in my life I have met Israelis". Bouteflika wished Barak well and told him that there were high expectations that he would carry out his pledges to make peace . He also offered his help whenever it was needed. "... we will need it," replied Barak.
. . .
King Hassan was enthroned in 1961 and had miraculous escapes in 1971 and 1972 when army rebels tried to kill him. Leftists organised an uprising in 1973 after several assassination plots were aborted. ... In his book The Challenge, King Hassan wrote: " ... The people would not understand if the king did not govern." In a second book, The Memory of a King published in 1993, he acknowledged that 60 per cent of his decisions had been wrong. He added: "I have had the courage to see my mistakes and to correct them."
. .
Opponents denounced human rights abuses, like harsh treatment of political prisoners, even though the king denied that there were political prisoners but only what he called "traitors".
. . .
The late king contained fundamentalism by using his prestige as a descendant of the Prophet, as a religious and temporal ruler who carried the title of Amir Al-Mu'menin, or prince of the faithful.

King Hassan was a discreet but key mediator in the Middle East peace process whose contacts with Israeli leaders helped pave the way for the 1979 peace accord between Egypt and Israel. He also recognised Israel as a state in 1994.

Born on 9 July 1929, King Hassan had two sons and three daughters by Lalla Latifa, a commoner styled simply as the mother of the royal children.

+++"The young king" by Nevine Khalil, Al-Ahram Weekly 29 July - 4 August 1999

HEADING:"An easy-going, well-educated 36-year-old King Mohamed VI has taken over Morocco's throne succeeding his father who was one of the region's most skillful politicians. The main task awaiting the king is solving Morocco's economic and social problems"

QUOTES FROM TEXT:"Great things are expected of Morocco's new king, not least, an easing of the stifling protocol that surrounded his father."

"Sidi Mohamed is said to be very concerned about social questions and anxious to launch much needed reforms."

"The constitution actually states that Morocco is a multiparty state but this is only in theory as the monarch, whose person is considered sacred and inviolable, has absolute powers."

"Fifty-five per cent of the 29 million population is illiterate ... . Unemployment affects nearly 20 per cent of the working population"

EXCERPTS:
King Mohamed VI of Morocco ... was born on 21 August, 1963. From a young age he carried out foreign duties alongside heads of state ... King Hassan personally took charge of his ... education.

Sidi Mohamed ... has had a rigorous scholarly upbringing. He spent more time studying at his desk at the royal college than running and playing like most children of his age. "There are times when I regret it," he once told the French newspaper, Le Figaro.

In 1985 he took over as the second-in-command of the army under his late father. The same year he got a law degree. In 1993 he earned his doctorate. To complete his training he spent several months in Brussels working directly under the president of the European Commission Jacques Delors.

In a 1995 interview with French television Hassan II said his son was his own man. "He is not me and I am not him.
. . .
Great things are expected of Morocco's new king, not least, an easing of the stifling protocol that surrounded his father.

The new king, half the age of his father, has a reputation for being easy going, often driving his car ... with only one security vehicle as escort. He scrupulously respected traffic signals, and would willingly stop when someone recognised him and wished to speak to him ... .
. . .

Whenever his father went anywhere, heavy security was put in place three or four hours beforehand. Hundreds of people stood alongside the track as the royal train went by and buildings and roads were redecorated and resurfaced.

Sidi Mohamed is said to be very concerned about social questions and anxious to launch much needed reforms.

Morocco is more modern and open to the outside world than it was when Hassan ascended the throne in 1961 but the domestic situation, both politically and economically, is extremely uncertain.

It was only in February last year that the late king acted to relax rigid political structures but in typical cautious fashion, he imposed a policy of alternating governments and appointed an administration of the centre-left in spite of elections which had produced results that went largely the other way.

The constitution actually states that Morocco is a multiparty state but this is only in theory as the monarch, whose person is considered sacred and inviolable, has absolute powers.
. . .
Fifty-five per cent of the 29 million population is illiterate... . Unemployment affects nearly 20 per cent of the working population, which includes tens of thousands of well-qualified people. In part, this is because of an inadequate education and training system. The health service is also in a state of worrying deterioration.
. . .
French President Jacques Chirac said late Saturday that King Mohamed was "capable of strengthening democracy and development in Morocco".
. . .
"I think King Mohamed will continue the policies of his father... ." said one Morocco-based Western diplomat. "... He takes over the religious title of Amir Al-Mu'meneen (the leader of the faithful) which means a lot in Muslim Morocco. Furthermore, he will become the supreme commander of the powerful army establishment," the diplomat added.
. . .

Diplomats believe that King Mohamed's primary mission will be to resume his father's recent reconciliation effort with Algeria in order to resolve the Western Sahara dispute.

Dr. Joseph Lerner, Co-Director
IMRA (Independent Media Review & Analysis)(mail POB 982 Kfar Sava)
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Reproduced by permission of IMRA, Independent Media Review and Analysis, Israel.

http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=2893