I watched each and every episode of “Shahid Ala Asr” on Aljazeera channel featuring Ahmed El Marzouki’s, (former political prisoner) testimony of the horrendous 18 years of his imprisonment in Tazmamart prison along another 57 military prisoners, from which 28 only emerged alive…and quite frankly I cannot find the right words to express the mixed feelings I grew inside me while watching and living each and every moment Ahmed El Marzouki was describing about their life and struggle inside the cell.
El Marzouki’s descriptions were highly detailed and extremely vivid to enable us visualizing the brutal life of “cave men” as he calls it in a forgotten deserted that lasted a period of 18 years. It’s extremely hard for me to process it all in my head. It’s just hard for me to believe that such brutality took place on the ground of a country I dearly loved and believed in with every fiber in my heart. No…sorry let me reword it, what’s harder for me is to believe that some people hide beasts inside them that know nothing about humanity.
The 58 political prisoners had no major contributions to the planning of the attempted coups against the king of Morocco, Hassan II. They were following orders and had no preconceived idea they were ordered to attack the king. Even though some of them were sentenced for 5 years only, Hassan II sent them in Tazmamart prison, a prison built specially for them lacking basic means of survival to teach a lesson they never forget.
I highly salute Ahmed Mansur for stepping out to interview former prisoners of Tazmamart and both Ahmed El Marzouki and Pilot Saleh Rachad for their courage to share bitter injustice that took place in now demolished Tazmamart prison.
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8 comments:
One of the things I admire about this guy is that despite everything he went through, he kept his sanity.
I read his books when it just came out around 2000/2001, and had my share of shock and disgust. I only saw few minutes of his interview with AJ. I will go through them entirely when I get a chance.
I am actually still listening to this guy (been listening all day at work) and I still can't come up with words to describe how I feel. After a while,it felt like I was in the midst of the worst imaginable nightmare.
Yep! It's heartaching...very hard to believe...
This is captivating.. I read Malika oufkir's book 5-6 years but this is way more graphic, very detailed and painful description of what took place in that hellhole.
Yeah I totally agree. I read the same book few years ago, and even though I was quite shocked it really didn't register in my head as I didn't believe the authencity of Malika's story.
This has totally changed my view on life in general. I dont know if this guy's confession is a blessing or a rude awakening. I have heard tids and bits about both coups, tazmamarat... etc but obviously nothing compares to El marzouki's confession.
I was driving home today and all of the sudden it just hit me "18 YEARS!!!!"
I don't know if I want to be associated with the country where these events took place. Maybe I am just too upset right now to say such a thing.
Now I m watching Salah Hashad.. God knows what horror he is going to reveal.
Well unfortunately there is no such perfect country in this world. Every ruler had its own share of shedding blood. That's how it is!
Agreed! The country I live in now had a slavery and human rights problem for centuries.
What ticks me off is these prisoners haven't received any solid monetary compensations or benefits of any kind.
I would love to see a movie depicting these events. The world needs to find out.
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