While
yesterday in Rabat, the Interior Minister, Mohand Laenser, noted with
optimism "stability and the trend towards strengthening the growing
sense of security in Morocco", the Arabic daily Al-Massae evoked for its
share growth
concern regarding violence against police and gendarmes in recent weeks. One thing shaped alarm signal and translates, hollow, the absence of a unanimous sense of security throughout the kingdom.
54th of 158. This is the rank "very comfortable" occupied by Morocco in the ranking of countries where the feeling of safety is the highest, said Wednesday in the MAP, the Interior Minister, Mr. Mohand Laenser.
In 2012, the security environment "is characterized by stability and the growing trend towards strengthening the sense of security," said the minister, addressing a note of optimism to the representatives of the Committee of Interior, regions and Local House of Councillors gathered for the occasion.
In his presentation, Laenser also underscored the high level of vigilance of the security services and managing the Kingdom's territorial management of security challenges, such as the fight against illegal immigration or trafficking against drug.
290 000 cases dealt with a clearance rate of 86% in 2012
In the fight against illegal immigration, territorial services such as managed to thwart 15,000 attempts of illegal immigration and dismantle 35 networks operating in the area, informed the Minister, being satisfied with the reduction in downstream the number of illegal immigrants who win the European coasts.
Next to the fight against crime, the minister also stressed that the services of his department intensified efforts in this direction, particularly in the fight against cross-border crime. He said these efforts were crowned with unprecedented results since the departments concerned have dealt with 290,000 cases in the early months of 2012 - an increase of 12% compared with the same period last year - with a rate of elucidation of around 86%.
To the minister, these positive results are a direct consequence of the policy followed in the mobilization of human and material resources; a policy that allowed the territorial administration and security services to improve their performance with the corollary, increased sense of security in general, and judicial security in particular.
The police and gendarmes regular victims of violence
The Minister of satisfécits obscure, however, several points. Starting with the fact that the average rate of crime has not declined but rather, indeed increased in Morocco in 2012: today it is around 19 crimes per 1000 when he was "that" to 17 crimes per 1000 population in 2011. Although he said the feeling of safety is not only related to the rate of crime trends or attendance at the services concerned but to the way certain issues are communicated and perceived, the fact remains that knowledge of such fact to worrying, more so when it is combined with a second reality that the minister's presentation failed to mention, namely: violence against police.
Police officers and gendarmes are in fact more and more regularly abused throughout the kingdom. In its edition today, Al Massae recounts three incidents (one in Marrakech, a Temara and one in Casablanca) that took place last week during which the police have every time been taken to targeted by armed assailants.
Offenders are no longer afraid of Makhzen
For the Arabic daily, these confrontations, "which occur at a rate of about once a week," "denotes an unprecedented acceleration of crime in Morocco." Furthermore, "the use of violence against police officers and gendarmes also reflects the loss of authority and fear of 'Makhzen'" the newspaper said. Today, offenders do not seem to fear the Makhzen, even to the point they do not hesitate to attack. According to Al Massae, the cause of such a shift of power relations is related to the use of increasingly frequent gun on the side of criminals; reflecting a proliferation concern, the newspaper said, "very serious shortcomings of in the control and monitoring of weapons in Morocco, but also in the licenses distributed to people for their possession. "
Also, whether the "red flag" fired - perhaps too early - by Al Massae or optimism - perhaps forced - by the Minister of Interior, difficult to identify a truth final if not the one the feeling of security is far from unanimous in Morocco.