Timeline Morocco
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The tahr is a frame drum from Morocco.
(NH, 6/97, p.66)
The Berbers were Morocco’s 1st inhabitants and their native language is
called Tamazight.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A14)
95Mil BC Fossils of
Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis, a meat-eating dinosaur from this time,
was first found in Morocco in the 1920s. Better fossils were found in
Niger in 1997. The upright-walking creature grinned with a mouth full
of banana-sized teeth, stood taller than a double-decker bus and
weighed more than two standard-sized cars. "It seems that shallow seas
divided Morocco and Niger, promoting evolutionary separation of the
species living in the two regions."
(www.livescience.com/animals/071211-big-dinosaur.html)
49BC Mauretania (now northern
Morocco and Algeria) became a client kingdom of Rome.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.22)
40AD Mauretania was divided into
the provinces of Tingitana and Caesariensis.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.22)
439AD The Vandals took Carthage
and quickly conquered all the coastal lands of Algeria and Tunisia.
Egypt and the Libyan coast remained in Roman hands.
(Enc. of Africa, 1976, p.168)
c439 In Mauretania (now northern
Morocco and Algeria) Roman rule ceased in the mid 5th century when
barbarian incursions forced the legions to withdraw.
(AM, May/Jun 97 p.)
c600-700 Muslims began a wave of invasions. Arabic
was imposed on the local Berbers after the Muslims conquered Morocco.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A14)
1062 Marrakech [Marrakesh], the
Arab name for Morocco, was built as a fortified city by the first
Berber dynasty, the Almoravids. It was the terminus of a trade route
running southward to the Niger River and of another running eastward to
Cairo.
(NH, 5/96, p.40)(SFEC, 7/25/99, p.T10)
1070 The 8 gates of Marrakech,
Morocco, were built.
(SSFC, 12/18/05, p.F5)
1100-1200 The Almohad dynasty replaced the Almoravids
and destroyed many of their royal buildings. Marrakesh was rebuilt by
Spanish artisans and the next 2 centuries became known as the golden
age of Marrakesh.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, p.T11)
1269 The capital was moved north
to Fez after the Almohad dynasty fell.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, p.T11)
1325 Ibn Battuta (20), a Muslim,
left his home in Tangier to journey to Mecca. He traveled in Arabia,
Asia, Africa, and Spain and recorded many exciting adventures. His
travels lasted some 29 years were described in his book “The Rihla.” In
1986 Ross E. Dunn authored “The Adventures of Ibn Battuta” based on The
Rihla.
(ATC, p.13)(SSFC, 11/13/05, p.F3)
1492 Jews began arriving in
Morocco, Syria and elsewhere in the Arab world after their expulsion
from Spain.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, p.T11)(SSFC, 6/28/09, p.A8)
1513 Magellan, who served for the
Portuguese on many expeditions, was wounded in a campaign against the
Moroccan stronghold of Azamor. The wound caused him to limp for the
rest of his life.
(HNQ, 10/9/00)
1541 The Portuguese abandoned
their sea defense settlement at Mogador, later Essaouira. Mogador had
originally been named by the Phoenicians.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.T4)
1578 Aug 4, A crusade against the
Moors of Morocco was routed at the Battle of Alcazar-el-Kebir. King
Sebastian of Portugal and 8,000 of his soldiers were killed. Sebastian
was killed along with the King of Fez and the Moorish Pretender in the
Battle of Alcazar. He was succeeded by Cardinal Henry.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.22)(HN, 8/4/98)
1585 The ruler of Morocco captured
the Songhai’s salt mines in Taghaza and puts his eye on the Songhai
source of gold.
(ATC, p.122)
1590 Apr 25, The Sultan of Morocco
launched his successful attack to capture Timbuktu. Morocco sent 4,000
soldiers under the Muslim Spaniard Judar Pasha to conquer Songhai.
After a five month journey across the Shara, Pasha arrived with only
1,000 men, but his soldiers carried guns. The 25,000 men of the Songhai
were no match for the guns and Gao, Timbuktu and most of Songhai fall.
(ATC, p.122)(HN, 4/25/98)
c1590 Ahmed al-Mansour, a Saadian
sultan, built El Badi Palace in Marrakesh. It was cannibalized in less
than 100 years by Moulay Ismail for his own capital at Meknes.
(SFEC, 7/25/99, p.T11)
1591 Moroccan invaders sacked
Timbuktu (Mali).
(AM, 7/04, p.36)
1680 Oct, King Charles II of
England was forced to recall Parliament in order to ask for money to
fortify the port of Tangier, Morocco, which was under assault by
Moorish forces.
(ON, 7/06, p.9)
1716 In the summer of 1716, a
Cornish cabin boy named Thomas Pellow (11) and fifty-one of his
comrades were captured at sea by Barbary corsairs. Ali Hakem and his
network of Islamic slave traders had declared war on the whole of
Christendom. Thousands of Europeans had been snatched from their homes
and taken in chains to the great slave markets of Algiers, Tunis, and
Salé in Morocco, where they were sold at auction to the highest
bidder. Pellow and his shipmates were bought by the sultan of Morocco,
Moulay Ismail, who was constructing an imperial palace of such scale
and grandeur that it would surpass every other building in the
world. In 2005 Giles Milton authored “White Gold,” an account of
the trade in white slaves.
(SSFC, 6/19/05, p.C3)(http://tinyurl.com/7wv2s)
1727 Moulay Ismail the
Bloodthirsty (b.~1645), Moroccan ruler, died. The Alaouite sultan is
said to have fathered 888 children through a harem of 500 women. He
ruled from 1672 to 1727 succeeding his half-brother Moulay Al-Rashid
who died after a fall from his horse.
(Econ, 12/20/08,
p.128)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moulay_Ismail)
1755 Nov 1, An 8.7 earthquake hit
Lisbon, Portugal, and killed some 70,000 people. Heavy damage resulted
from ensuing fires and tsunami flooding in Morocco and nearly a quarter
of a million people were killed. In 2008 Nicholas Shrady authored “The
Last Day: Wrath, Ruin and Reason in the Great Lisbon Earthquake.”
(HN,
11/1/98)(http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmosde.html)(Econ, 4/5/08,
p.86)
1769 The Sea Gate (Porte de la
Marine) was built in Mogador, later renamed Essaouira, to link the
harbor to the medina. About this time Sultan Sidi Mohammad Ibn Abdelah
transformed Mogador into an open city and encouraged its growth as a
commercial port.
(SFEC, 1/2/00, p.T4)
1786 Jul 11, Morocco agreed to
stop attacking American ships in the Mediterranean for a payment of
$10,000.
(HN, 7/11/98)
1787 Morocco became the first
country to recognize the US as a sovereign nation. Pres. Washington
acknowledged Morocco’s recognition in 1789.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.E4)(SFCM, 3/27/05, p.19)
1816 Robert Adams, the 1st
Westerner to reach Timbuktu, transcribed an account of his experiences
there as an enslaved American sailor.
(Econ, 12/20/03, p.126)
1832 Delacroix painted the
Moroccan scene “A Street in Meknes.”
(WSJ, 9/27/00, p.A24)
1859 Oct 22, Spain declared war on
the Moors in Morocco.
(HN, 10/22/98)
1884 Spain annexed the coastal
area of Western Sahara.
(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A12)
1904 May 8, U.S. Marines landed in
Tangier to protect the Belgian legation.
(HN, 5/8/98)
1904 May 18, Brigand Raizuli
kidnapped American Ion H. Perdicaris in Morocco.
(HN, 5/18/98)
1904 Jun 8, U.S. Marines landed in
Tangiers, Morocco.
(HN, 6/8/98)
1905 Feb 1, Germany contested
French rule in Morocco.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1906 Apr 7, A general act was
issued by the international conference of Algeciras, Spain. Thirteen
powers participated in the deliberations on the Moroccan question, and
despite strong German objections, agreed to entrust to France and Spain
the management of the Moroccan police. The powers also made
arrangements regarding Morocco's state bank, system of taxation,
customs administration, and public works.
(www.bartleby.com/67/1378.html)
1906 Apr 16, It was reported that
a formidable revolt against Fez was maturing in the City of Morocco.
(SSFC, 4/16/06, p.A13)
1907 Dec 2, Spain and France
agreed to enforce Moroccan measures adopted in 1906.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1908 Jun 21, Mulai Hafid again
proclaimed himself the true sultan of Morocco.
(HN, 6/21/98)
1909 Jan 21-22, An earthquake in
Morocco's northern region, near Tetouan, killed up to 100.
(AP, 2/25/04)
1909 Feb 9, France agreed to
recognize German economic interests in Morocco in exchange for
political supremacy.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1912 Aug 11, Moroccan Sultan Mulai
Hafid abdicated his throne in the face of internal dissent. Most of the
country became a French protectorate with Spain taking the northern
fifth.
(HN, 8/10/98)(SFEC, 7/25/99, p.T11)(AP, 5/17/03)
1912-1956 The French ruled Morocco.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A18)
1925 Jun 22, France and Spain
agreed to join forces against Abd el Krim in Morocco.
(HN, 6/22/98)
1929 Jan 24, An earthquake in
northern Morocco did material damage in Fez.
(AP, 2/25/04)
1934 Spain annexed the interior
area of Western Sahara.
(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A12)
1936 Jul 17, Gen. Francisco Franco
was flown from the Canary Islands, where he served as military
governor, to Spanish Morocco where he led a rebellion against the
elected Popular Front. This began the Spanish civil war. The first word
of the rebellion was reported by Lester Ziffren (1906-2007) of the
United Press. The rebel Nationalist movement under Francisco Franco
gained support from the fascist regimes in Italy and Germany in
opposition.
(SFC, 11/12/96, p.A12)(SFC, 7/13/01, WBb p.3)(WSJ,
11/24/07, p.A8)
1941 The 1942 film Casablanca was
set in 1941. In 1998 Richard E. Osborne published his book “The
Casablanca Companion: The Movie Classic and Its Place in History,” in
which the events of the movie are tied to the actual events of history.
(SFEC, 1/25/98, Par p.6)
1943 Jan 14, Roosevelt, Churchill,
and DeGaulle met at Casablanca to discuss the direction of the war. The
Casablanca Conference, a pivotal 10-day meeting during WWII between
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill, determined unconditional surrender would be the only basis
of negotiations with the Axis. Roosevelt and Churchill also pledged
maximum aid to the Soviet Union and China in the war
(AP, 1/14/98)(HN, 1/14/99)(HNQ, 1/7/00)
1943 Jan 24, President Roosevelt
and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime conference in
Casablanca, Morocco.
(AP, 1/24/98)
1943 Mar 18, American forces took
Gafsa in Tunisia. In the crucible of Operation Torch, the men of
Sub-Task Force Goalpost received their baptism of fire capturing the
Moroccan town of Port Lyautey.
(HN, 3/18/98)
1947 American writer Paul Bowles
settled in Tangiers with his wife, Jane Auer, author of "Two Serious
Ladies."
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.D8)(WSJ, 11/23/99, p.A22)
1952 Dec 8, French troops shot on
demonstrators at Casablanca and 50 people were killed.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1955 Aug 20, Hundreds of people
were killed in anti-French rioting in Morocco and Algeria.
(AP, 8/20/97)
1956 Mar 2, Morocco tore up the
Treaty of Féz and declared independence from France. A protocol
on Moroccan independence was signed in Paris.
(HN, 3/2/99)(EWH, 1968, p.1244)(SC, 3/2/02)
1956 Oct 20, Tangier became part
of independent Morocco.
(EWH, 1968, p.1228)
1956 Oct 22, France intercepted a
Moroccan plane and arrested Ben Bella, an Algerian statesman.
(MC, 10/22/01)
1956 Oct 29, International zone of
Tangier was returned to Morocco.
(MC, 10/29/01)
1956 In Morocco following
independence the northern region of the Riff mountains retained a
dispensation to grow cannabis, which was turned into hashish, but not
to sell it on a large scale.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.46)
1957 Mar 30, Tunisia and Morocco
signed a friendship treaty in Rabat.
(HN, 3/30/98)
1957 Dec 25, Ramdane Abane
(b.1920), Algerian Berber revolutionary leader, was assassinated in
Morocco.
(www.amazighworld.org/history/personalities/ramdane_abane.php)(SFC,
6/28/08, p.E2)
1958 Morocco’s crown prince and
army chief Hassan II crushed a rebellion in the Riff mountains.
(Econ, 7/15/06,
p.46)(www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/mo__indx.html)
1958 France exited from Morocco.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A18)
1960 Feb 29, An 5.7 earthquake in
Morocco's southwest Atlantic coast killed as many as 12,000. The town
of Agadir destroyed.
(AP, 2/25/04)
1961 Feb 26, Mohammed V ibn Yusuf
(51), sultan, King of Morocco, died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1961 Mar 3, King Hassan II, the
17th of the Alawite dynasty, ascended to throne of Morocco. He
succeeded his father Mohamed V.
(SFEC,11/16/97, p.A21)(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A9)(SC,
3/3/02)
1962 The first constitution of
Morocco was ratified. It guaranteed freedom of the press and religion
and created an elected legislature.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A9)
1962-1979 This period is covered by John Hopkins in
his book "The Tangier Diaries."
(SFEC, 2/21/99, BR p.9)
1963 Mar 27, John F. Kennedy met
with King Hassan II of Morocco.
(HN, 3/27/98)
1965 Mar 23, Police in Casablanca
cracked down on students and workers campaigning for social justice and
about 100 were killed. In the 1970s the “March 23 movement” for social
rights was named for this day.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A14)(SS, 3/23/02)
1965 Oct 29, Mehdi Ben Barka
(b.1920), a leading opposition figure to Morocco’s King Hassan II
(d.1999), disappeared in front of the famous Left Bank Lipp Cafe. His
body has never been found.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehdi_Ben_Barka)(AP,
10/11/09)
1965-1980 Abderrahman Youssoufi went into exile.
During this period he helped create the Arab organization of Human
Rights, SOS Torture, and the Morocco Organization for Human Rights.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A14)
1969 Jan 4, Spain returned the
Ifni province to Morocco.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ifni)
1969 Feb 28, An earthquake in
Morocco's Atlantic coast killed about a dozen people and injured 200.
(AP, 2/25/04)
1969 May 25, Thor Heyerdahl
(1914-2002), Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer, departed with his
crew on the reed raft Ra for from Morocco. They abandoned their trip 1
week shy of Barbados. Heyerdahl sailed across the Atlantic in his
Egyptian reed boat, Ra, and reported on garbage floating everywhere in
the sea. On 16 July the crew was saved by the American yacht
Shenandoah. In just 56 days they had sailed a distance of 2,700
nautical miles.
(V.D.-H.K.p.343)(www.shipsonstamps.org/Topics/html/kontiki.htm)
1971 Jul 10, A coup against King
Hassan at the Skhirat palace failed. Nearly 100 guests were killed. The
coup leaders were publicly executed three days later. The army officers
were angered by Hassan's abandonment of thousands of square miles in an
Algerian border war.
(WUD, 1994, p. 1688)(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A9)(SFEC,
7/25/99, p.A19)(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A14)
1971 Jul 13, The Army of Morocco
executed ten leaders accused of leading a revolt.
(HN, 7/13/99)
1972 Aug 16, The Moroccan Air
Force attempted to shoot down a Boeing 727 carrying King Hassan II. The
attempt failed and the coup leaders were arrested. Gen. Mohammad Oufkir
was shot to death for the attack. In 2000 a letter was produced that
implicated Abderrahmane Youssoufi, the prime minister, in conspiracy
with Oufkir.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A9)(SFC, 12/15/00,
p.D2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_II_of_Morocco)
1973 Robert Neumann (d.1999 at
83), an Austrian born scholar, was assigned as US ambassador to Morocco.
(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A25)
1973 There were some 74,000 native
Sahrawi in Western Sahara and 60 of them were in college.
(WSJ, 6/7/00, p.A8)
1974 Students staged a strike for
rights and equal education for women.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A14)
1975 May, Spain moved out of
Spanish Sahara and the native Sahrawi called for independence. Both
Morocco and Mauritania laid claim to Spanish Sahara (Western Sahara)
following Spain’s withdrawal. The Polisario Front, an armed nationalist
movement, sought to turn Western Sahara into an independent state for
its largely nomadic people.
(www.africaaction.org/docs02/wsah0205.htm)(WSJ,
6/7/00, p.A1)(Econ, 9/24/05, p.56)
1975 Nov 6, Morocco occupied
Western Sahara. King Hassan dispatched 350,000 unarmed Moroccans on a
"Green March" to the former Spanish Sahara. This began a long war with
the Polisario Front guerrilla group, tribal Bedouin who sought
independence.
(SFC, 5/7/97, p.C2)(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A9)(WSJ, 6/7/00,
p.A1)(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A8)
1976 Apr 13, In Morocco
Abdennaceur Bnouhachem's work as a left-wing student activist came to
an abrupt when plain clothed security officers cornered him in the
street and bundled him into an unmarked van. He was tortured and spent
9 years in prison. Years later he was awarded 1 million dirhams
($114,500) for his ordeal, but says the money will not erase his
memories.
(Reuters, 7/13/06)
1976 Paul Bowles (1910-1999),
American-born composer and writer who lived in Tangier, Morocco, wrote
his short story Allal. In 1996 three of Bowles’ stories were made into
a film titled "Halfmoon" by Frieder Schlaich and Irene von Alberti.
Bertolucci had earlier transferred his novel "The Sheltering Sky" into
film. A biography of Bowles by Millicint Dillon, "You Are Not I: A
Portrait of Paul Bowles" was published in 1998.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. C3)(SFEC, 4/5/98, BR
p.3)(www.paulbowles.org/bowlesbiography.html)
1976 Sahrawis of Western Sahara
proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
(Econ, 8/28/04, p.76)
1981 Jun 20, In Casablanca,
Morocco, riots left some 100 dead. In 2005 authorities exhumed the
remains of about 100 people killed during riots from a mass grave and
reburied them individually in a nearby lot.
(AP, 12/14/05)
1985 Pope John Paul II visited the
country and issued his first major plea for Christian-Islamic
solidarity against secular materialism.
(SFC, 4/15/96,A-8)
1986 King Hassan II used a
bulldozer battalion to complete a massive earthworks down the 750-mile
center of Western Sahara.
(WSJ, 6/7/00, p.A8)
1987 The UN coaxed Morocco and the
Polisario into peace talks.
(WSJ, 6/7/00, p.A8)
1990 King Hassan II formed the
(CCDH) Royal Advisory Council on Human Rights to address compensation
owed to prisoners.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A14)
1991 Aug 3, US Secretary of State
James A. Baker III met with King Hassan the Second of Morocco. Baker
asked the monarch for his help in gaining Palestinian participation in
a Middle East peace conference.
(AP, 8/3/01)
1991 Morocco and the Polisario of
Western Sahara stopped fighting to let the United Nations hold a
referendum. It was still pending in 2000.
(WSJ, 6/7/00, p.A1)
1992 Oct 23, A 5.3 earthquake in
Morocco's Southeast Erfoud region killed two people.
(AP, 2/25/04)
1993 Aug 9, Mohamed M. Tabet (54),
commissar of Casablanca, was executed by firing squad. He had committed
violent acts against some 16000 women.
(http://tinyurl.com/7lwt4)
1993 King Hassan II published his
book "Memory of a King."
(SFEC, 7/25/99, p.A19)
1993 Morocco ratified the UN
Convention Against Torture.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A14)
1993 A new Human Rights Ministry
was created.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A14)
1993 Morocco’s King Hassan II set
up a commission to review the legal status of women.
(WSJ, 8/10/04, p.B1)
1994 Apr 15, Ministers from 109
countries signed a 26,000-page world trade agreement known as the
"Uruguay Round" accords in Marrakesh, Morocco.
(AP, 4/15/99)
1994 Aug 21, An Air Morocco
regional jet crashed and killed all 44 onboard. It was suspected that
the pilot steered the plane into the ground.
(WSJ, 3/10/98,
p.A1)(www.planecrashinfo.com/1994/1994-43.htm)
1994 Sep 1, Morocco established
low-level diplomatic relations with Israel.
(AP, 9/1/99)
1994 Algeria closed its common
border with Morocco after Morocco claimed Algerian secret service
agents were behind an Islamist extremist attack in Marrakesh. Algiers
later set a global settlement of the conflict in Western Sahara as a
precondition for reopening the border.
(AFP, 7/30/08)
1995 Mar, King Hassan II visited
the US to enhance economic ties.
(WSJ, 12/18/95, p.A-10)
1995 Spain and Morocco agreed to
build a channel tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar. The plan was for
3 tunnels at a cost of $4 bil.
(WSJ, 6/18/96, p.A10)
1996 May 15, The UN closed its
offices in Western Sahara due to a deadlock over election registration.
4/5 of Western Sahara is under Moroccan administration. The Polisario
Front claims that Morocco is packing the electoral rolls with
supporters having only tenuous links with the territory. Polisario has
declared an independent republic and said this is recognized by more
than 70 countries.
(SFC, 5/15/96, p.A-10)
1996 Morocco’s government began a
series of reforms.
(SFCM, 3/27/05, p.13)
1996 The new Code of Penal
Procedure limited incommunicado detention to 48 hours.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A14)
1997 Nov 15, Elections results
split the new legislature into 3 near identical blocks after a voter
turnout of only 58.3 %. King Hassan II was expected to pick a prime
minister in consultation with the parties in Jan.
(SFEC,11/16/97, p.A21)
1998 Jan 4, King Hassan II
appointed Abderrahmane El Toussoufi (Abderrahman Youssoufi), opposition
leader of the Socialist Union of People’s Forces, as prime minister.
(SFC, 2/5/98, p.A13)(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A14)
1998 Sep 25, A chartered Spanish
airliner crashed in Morocco and killed all 38 people onboard.
(SFC, 9/26/98, p.A11)
1998 Oct 30, The UN extended its
460-member peacekeeping force in the Western Sahara over land contested
between Morocco and the Algerian-based Polisario Front.
(SFC, 10/31/98, p.A15)
1998 Nov 11, It was reported that
Pfizer and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation initiated a $66 million
effort to attack trachoma, a disease of the eye caused by chlamydia. A
one-gram dose of zithromax given once a year would treat the disease.
Focus was to be on Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Tanzania and Vietnam.
(SFC, 11/11/98, p.D6)
1998 Dec 18, The ICO Challenger
balloon with Richard Branson, Steve Fossett and Per Lindstrand left
Marrakesh, Morocco, in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe.
(SFC, 12/19/98, p.B3)
1998 The film “In My Father’s
House” was about sexual politics in Morocco and showed at the SF Film
Fest.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, DB p.55)
1998 Autopsies were made standard
for any detention-related death.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A14)
1999 May 11, Moroccan police
reported that at least 13 migrants drowned after smugglers told them to
jump and swim to the Spanish shore while still off the coast of
Morocco. 21 others were still missing.
(SFC, 5/12/99, p.C10)
1999 Jul 23, In Morocco King
Hassan II died at age 70. He was succeeded by his son, Crown Prince
Sidi Mohamed (36), who became King Mohammed VI.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A1)(AP, 7/23/00)
1999 Nov 10, King Mohamed VI
(Mohammed VI) dismissed Driss Basri, the minister of interior and
communications.
(SFC, 11/17/99, p.B3)(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A14)
1999 Nov 18, Paul Bowles, author
and composer, died in Tangiers at age 88. His written work included the
novel "The Sheltering Sky," which was made into a 1990 film. He also
wrote "Let It Come Down," "The Spider's House" and "Up Above the
World." His music included a "Sonata for Oboe and Clarinet."
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.D8)(WSJ, 11/23/99, p.A22)
1999 Dec 8, A shoddily constructed
building collapsed in Fez and at least 47 people were killed.
(SFC, 12/11/99, p.C2)
1999 The CCDH released information
on 112 “disappearances.” Other claimed that the real number was between
600 and several thousand.
(SFC, 4/13/01, p.A14)
2000 Mar 12, Some 500,000 Muslim
fundamentalist marched in Casablanca in opposition to the government's
plan to extend women's rights. In Rabat another 200-300,000 people
marched in support of the plan.
(SFC, 3/13/00, p.A11)
2000 Mar, Berbers submitted the
“Berber Manifesto,” which called on the state to recognize Tamazight as
a national language.
(SFC, 3/16/01, p.A18)
2000 Jun 7, The Polisario Front
held some 3,000 Moroccan prisoners of war. Morocco held some 300.
Tribal Bedouin called Sahrawi were mostly settled at the Smara Camp in
Western Algeria.
(WSJ, 6/7/00, p.A1)
2000 Nov 5, Abdelkhader el-Mouaziz
of Morocco won the NYC Marathon in 2:10:9.
(WSJ, 11/6/00, p.A1)
2000 Dec, Prime Minister
Abederrhmane Youssoufi used Article 77 to shut down 3 weekly newspapers
after they published a letter that implicated him in the 1982
assassination attempt on King Hassan II.
(SFC, 12/15/00, p.D2)
2000 Morocco passed a landmark
education law aimed at employing graduates, but by 2006 it had still
not been implemented.
(Econ, 4/8/06, p.45)
2001 Jan, The Polisario Front
threatened to end the 9-year cease-fire if the 23rd annual Dakar Rally
from Paris to Dakar was allowed to cross their territory.
(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.D1)
2001 Nov 9, In Morocco negotiators
of over 160 countries reached agreement on a climate control treaty and
set mandatory targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
(SFC, 11/10/01, p.A12)
2001 Morocco’s King Mohammed VI
launched an initiative to ready the country to receive 10 million
tourists by 2010.
(SSFC, 12/18/05, p.F5)
2002 Apr 8, US Sec. of State Colin
Powell arrived in Morocco as a large pro-Palestinian paralyzed the
capital.
(WSJ, 4/8/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 11, Moroccan police
arrested three Saudi nationals who were allegedly planning attacks
against U.S. and British war ships in the Strait of Gibraltar. They
were identified as: Hilal Jaber al-Assiri, Abdellah Ali al-Ghamdi and
Zuher al-Tbaiti.
(AP, 6/11/02)(WSJ, 6/12/02, p.A14)
2002 Jun 12, Horace Roye (97),
British fashion photographer, was stabbed to death at his home in Rabat.
(SFC, 6/13/02, p.A30)
2002 Jun 25, In Morocco
authorities have arrested three more people in a widening investigation
into the Moroccan tendrils of al-Qaida, bringing the number of suspects
held here to 10, including three Saudis.
(AP, 6/25/02)
2002 Jul 11, Moroccan soldiers
planted a national flag on Perejil Island (parsley in Spanish), 200
yards off the coast near Ceuta. Spain had claimed control since the
17th century. Moroccans called the 0.58-square mile rocky outcrop Leila
(night in Arabic). Spanish troops swiftly dislodged the Moroccans
without a shot being fired. Under a diplomatic resolution, both sides
agreed to leave it as a no man's land.
(SSFC, 7/14/02, p.A20)(SFC, 7/20/02, p.A10)(AP,
11/3/07)
2002 Jul 13, Morocco's King
Mohammed VI publicly celebrated his marriage to a 24-year-old computer
engineer during two days of festivities that showed the 38-year-old
king's desire to modernize the monarchy.
(AP, 7/13/02)
2002 Jul 17, Spanish troops
reclaimed the island of Perejil off the coast of Morocco, a week after
it was occupied by Moroccan troops.
(WSJ, 7/18/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A17)
2002 Jul 22, Morocco and Spain,
prodded by the US, agreed to leave Perjil Island empty and free of
symbols of sovereignty and planned for future talks on the issue.
(SFC, 7/23/02, p.A8)
2002 Sep 27, In Morocco 26
parties, nearly a dozen of them formed in the past two years, contested
parliamentary in elections.
(AP, 9/26/02)
2002 Sep 25, Explosives (pentrite)
were discovered on a Moroccan jet after passengers left the flight at
an airport in eastern France. There was no detonator attached to the 3
1/2 ounces of explosives discovered in the passenger section of a Royal
Air Maroc airplane after it landed at the Metz-Nancy-Lorraine airport.
(AP, 9/26/02)
2002 Sep 27, In Morocco 26
parties, nearly a dozen of them formed in the past two years, contested
parliamentary in elections. A fundamentalist party that wants to apply
Islamic law, performed strongly in elections. The socialists of Prime
Minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi finished first with 50 seats, Jettou
said. The conservative Istiqlal Party, the socialists' coalition
partner in the previous parliament, won 48 seats.
(AP, 9/26/02)(AP, 9/28/02)(AP, 9/29/02)(AP, 10/2/02)
2002 Oct 9, Morocco's king
appointed former Interior Minister Driss Jettou as prime minister,
directing him to move quickly on economic and social reforms.
(AP, 10/9/02)
2002 Nov 1, In Morocco a fire
erupted at an overcrowded Sidi Moussa jail in coastal El Jadida,
killing at least 49 inmates and injuring dozens of other people.
(AP, 11/1/02)
2002 Nov 6, In Morocco King
Mohammed VI said the call for a referendum in Western Sahara to
determine whether the people want independence is "null" and
"inapplicable," his first public dismissal of the plan first put
forward in 1991.
(AP, 11/6/02)
2002 Nov 25, Floods caused by 2
days of heavy rains in Morocco killed at least 37 people, collapsed
homes, shut down rail travel and damaged the country's huge oil
refinery.
(AP, 11/26/02)
2003 Jan 18, Moroccan rescue
workers found the bodies of 16 people who drowned while trying to
illegally enter Spain by crossing the Strait of Gibraltar in an
inflatable boat.
(AP, 1/19/03)
2003 May 16, In Morocco suicide
attackers set 5 nearly simultaneous explosions in the heart of
Casablanca, killing 33 people and a dozen suicide bombers at a Jewish
community center, the Belgian consulate, a Spanish social club and a
major hotel. The attackers all came from the shantytown of Carriere
Thomas. In 2007 a Paris court convicted eight people of supporting the
suicide bombers.
(AP, 5/17/04)(SFCM, 3/27/05, p.10)(AP, 7/12/07)
2003 Jun, Moroccan authorities
warned Spain that Jamal Zougan, a radical Islamist with suspected links
to terrorists, had returned to Madrid.
(WSJ, 3/19/04, p.A11)
2003 Jul 12, Western Sahara's
rebels unexpectedly accepted a peace plan for the mineral-rich region,
but Morocco remained opposed.
(AP, 7/12/03)
2003 Aug 11, Saudi Crown Prince
Abdullah flew to Morocco for talks with King Mohammed VI about Iraq and
the Palestinian territories.
(AP, 8/11/03)
2003 Aug 19, Morocco sentenced
four men to death and 83 others to prison in a trial centered on deadly
terror attacks that raised fears Islamic extremism is spreading.
(AP, 8/19/03)
2003 Sep 1, A rebel group trying
to win independence for the Western Sahara has released 243 Moroccan
prisoners, some of whom have been held for nearly three decades. It was
the first prisoner release since the UN Security Council voted in July
to urge Morocco and the Polisario to accept a new plan to settle the
long-running dispute over the Western Sahara.
(AP, 9/3/03)
2003 Sep, Amazigh, the Berber
language, began to be taught for the 1st time in Moroccan schools. The
Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture was recently set up.
(WSJ, 9/10/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 10, Morocco's king
announced plans to grant new rights to women regarding marriage and
divorce, reforms aimed at modernizing Moroccan society.
(AP, 10/10/03)
2003 Nov 15, Mohamed Choukri (68),
a Moroccan writer whose tales about his experiences with drugs and
homosexuality were banned at home, died in Tangiers. His best-known
work, "For Bread Alone" (1981), was published in Paris and told
of his difficult adolescence.
(AP, 11/16/03)
2003 In Morocco Swiss investor
Jean Victor Lovat filed a complaint against Abdelaziz Laafoura and
Abdelmoughit Slimani. Slimani, a former mayor of Casablanca, was
sentenced on appeal to 16 years in prison. In 2008 Laafoura, a former
Casablanca governor, was acquitted by the Supreme Court of corruption.
The court released assets it had frozen.
(AFP, 3/16/08)
2004 Jan 7, Morocco pardoned 33
prisoners, including a prominent journalist.
(AP, 1/7/04)
2004 Jan, Morocco launched the
Arab world's 1st "truth commission." Mohammad VI appointed Driss
Benzekri (1950-2007), a former political prisoner, as head. Benzekri
was arrested for his left-wing student activities in 1974, and spent 17
years as a political prisoner until his release by Hassan II.
(WSJ, 1/29/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/22/07, p.B5)
2004 Jan, Morocco’s parliament
passed legislation on women’s rights.
(WSJ, 8/10/04, p.B1)
2004 Feb 24, A 5.1 earthquake
struck northern Morocco near Al Hoceima, toppling houses and killing
629 people.
(AP, 2/25/04)(SFC, 2/25/04, p.A3)(AP, 3/5/04)
2004 Jun 7, Pilots at Royal Air
Maroc, Morocco's national carrier, have decided to end their strike,
which began May 26 in response to the firing of 6 colleagues.
(AFP, 6/7/04)
2004 Jun 17, Tahar Ben Jelloun
(59), a Moroccan-born novelist and poet, won the Int’l. IMPAC Dublin
Literary Award for the best work of English fiction for 2002. Linda
Coverdale, translator of “This Blinding Absence of Light,” received a
quarter of the $120,000 prize.
(SFC, 6/18/04, p.E2)
2004 Jul 22, The U.S. House of
Representatives gave final approval to a new free trade agreement with
Morocco.
(Reuters, 7/22/04)
2004 Jul 25, A Spanish newspaper
reported that Morocco had warned Spain earlier this month that it lost
track of 400 Moroccan Islamist militants who trained in al Qaeda camps
in Afghanistan, Bosnia or Chechnya.
(AP, 7/25/04)
2004 Aug 28, In Morocco a bus
trying to pass another vehicle on a winding mountain highway collided
with an oncoming truck and taxi, killing 29 people and injuring 30.
(AP, 8/29/04)
2004 Sep 15, South Africa formally
recognized the pro-independence government in the annexed Moroccan
territory of Western Sahara (Sahrawi statehood), prompting Rabat to
recall its ambassador from Pretoria in protest.
(AP, 9/16/04)(Econ, 10/30/04, p.53)
2004 Dec 21, Morocco tried to blot
out stains of past human rights abuses with public testimony about
tortures and disappearances in the Muslim kingdom.
(Reuters, 12/21/04)
2004 Dec 30, King Mohammed VI of
Morocco met with Canadian PM Paul Martin and ambassador Carmen Sylvain
for talks about cooperation between their two countries.
(AFP, 12/30/04)
2004 Morocco banned cultivation of
cannabis. This pushed cultivation of the plant into the hinterlands of
the Rif Mountains.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.46)
2005 Jan, Morocco’s parliament
approved a free trade agreement with the US.
(SFCM, 3/27/05, p.14)
2005 Mar, Morocco’s free-trade
agreement with the US was scheduled to go into effect.
(SFC, 2/23/05, p.C1)
2005 Mar 27, Morocco’s per capita
income was reported to be about $1,200 per year. One of 5 urban
Moroccans was unemployed.
(SFCM, 3/27/05, p.11)
2005 May 10, A Moroccan jailed for
involvement in the Casablanca bombings two years ago died during a
hunger strike by some 1,000 predominantly Islamist inmates.
(Reuters, 5/10/05)
2005 May 23, Morocco's king pulled
out of the first North African summit in more than a decade, over
Algeria's latest comments in a long-running dispute over independence
for Western Sahara. Moroccan King Mohammed VI will be represented at
the two-day summit in Tripoli, Libya, by Morocco's foreign minister,
Mohamed Benaissa.
(AP, 5/23/05)
2005 Jun 13, Moroccan officials
said at least 12 people, six of them children, drowned when a rubber
dinghy carrying would-be immigrants to Europe capsized off Africa's
northern coast.
(AP, 6/13/05)
2005 Jun, In Morocco Nadia Yassine
(47), leader of the underground Justice and Charity Islamic movement,
was charged with publicly criticizing the monarchy after she stated in
a newspaper interview that the country would be better off as a
republic than as a kingdom. She demanded the abolition of Article 19 of
the constitution enshrining the king’s role as Commander of the
Faithful.
(www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/11/AR2006021101472.html)
2005 Jun, The Trans-Sahara
Counter-Terrorism Initiative began operations. The US funded plan
intended to provide military equipment and development aid to 9
north-east African countries considered fertile ground for Muslim
militant groups. Participating countries included Algeria, Chad, Mali,
Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia.
(SFC, 12/27/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 4, A Moroccan court
convicted and sentenced Taoufik Hanouichi and Mohcine Bouarfa to death.
They were among those arrested in a sweep to dismantle militant Islamic
networks following suicide bombings in Casablanca. Dozens of others
were jailed. The two men were unlikely to be executed, as Morocco has
had a de facto moratorium on the death penalty since 1993.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Aug 16, Several new computer
worms hit systems running MS Windows 2000. On Aug 25 authorities in
Morocco arrested Farid Essebar (18) for writing the Zotob worm. Atilla
Ekici (21) was arrested in Turkey for paying Essebar to write the worm.
In 2006 Morocco sentenced Farid Essebar (19) to 2 years in prison and
Achraf Bahlouo (21) to one year for their role in unleashing the Zotob
worm. Ekici’s trial continued in Turkey.
(SFC, 8/27/05, p.A2)(WSJ, 9/14/06, p.B3)(WSJ,
11/21/06, p.A1)
2005 Aug 18, Western Sahara
guerrillas released their last Moroccan prisoners, 404 soldiers held
for up to 20 years from a long-ended war over the barren but
phosphate-rich region.
(AP, 8/18/05)
2005 Sep 29, Hundreds of African
migrants charged a razor-wire border fence at a Spanish enclave in
northern Morocco before dawn, and five people were killed and 50
injured, prompting Spain to send troops to secure the frontier.
(AP, 9/29/05)
2005 Oct 2, Moroccan police began
rounding up African refugees. Doctors Without Borders soon reported
that Morocco had dropped about 1,000 people in the desert and left them
there to walk for nearly a week. As a result, the government
established the two holding centers at Touizgue and Berden for those
people to find refuge.
(AP, 10/18/05)
2005 Oct 3, More than 300 Africans
tore through a razor-wire fence separating Morocco from the Spanish
enclave of Melilla, clashing with police in the latest wave of
undocumented immigrants seeking a foothold in Europe.
(AP, 10/3/05)
2005 Oct 4, Spain said it will
build a third high-security fence between its Melilla enclave and
Morocco after undocumented immigrants repeatedly stormed two existing
barriers.
(AP, 10/4/05)
2005 Oct 5, Some 500 African
immigrants defied increased security and tried to surge across
razor-wire fences separating Morocco and the Spanish enclave of
Melilla, the 5th such rush in a week.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Oct 10, Morocco began
deporting would-be immigrants, with a flight carrying 140 Senegalese
taking off for Dakar after hundreds of Africans stormed razor-wire
border fences in recent weeks.
(AP, 10/10/05)
2005 Oct 15, Moroccan authorities
flew 435 illegal immigrants home to Senegal and Mali, starting a second
wave of mass deportations of sub-Saharan Africans who have tried to
slip into Europe through the North African kingdom.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Nov 7, Thousands of Moroccans
marched through central Casablanca to demand the release of 2 Moroccan
Embassy employees in Iraq who al-Qaida has threatened to kill.
(AP, 11/7/05)
2005 Nov 8, The EU said Morocco
will join its Galileo satellite navigation program, becoming the first
African nation to participate in the project that aims to rival the US'
GPS system.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Nov 11, In Morocco police
arrested 17 members of a terrorist network, including two former
prisoners at the U.S. base in Guantanamo, Cuba. At least some of the
suspects were linked to al-Qaida in Iraq.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Dec 6, Morocco's national
airline completed an order for four Boeing Co. 787 jets and took out an
option for one more.
(AP, 12/06/05)
2005 Dec 16, Morocco’s state news
agency reported that a truth commission tasked with investigating more
than four decades (1956-1999) of human rights abuses uncovered nearly
600 disappearances and the deaths of about 500 people during street
riots or while in police custody.
(AP, 12/16/05)
2006 Jan 6, Morocco's King
Mohammed, under pressure from human rights groups to apologize for more
than four decades of past repression by the state, offered his sympathy
for the victims.
(Reuters, 1/6/06)
2006 Jan 8, In Morocco a senior
official said Royal Air Maroc (RAM), encouraged by its majority
shareholdings in the national airlines of Senegal and Gabon, is
planning a major expansion of routes in Africa.
(AFP, 1/8/06)
2006 Jan 10, Spanish police
arrested 20 people, mostly Moroccans, linked to Islamic terrorism and
violence in Iraq in raids across Spain.
(AFP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 12, Spanish police
detained Omar Nakcha (23), a Moroccan whom they suspect of being the
leader of two extremist groups recruiting volunteers to fight in Iraq.
(AP, 1/12/06)
2006 Jan, A free trade agreement
between the Morocco and the US came into force and covered industrial
and agricultural goods, intellectual property, services, customs,
employment, the environment and telecommunications.
(AFP, 6/28/06)
2006 Feb 6, In Morocco police
broke up an international network helping Indians migrate illegally to
Europe with 70 arrests.
(AFP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 9, Moroccan state media
reported that the US has handed over three suspected Islamic militants
held at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
(Reuters, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 13, British Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw and his Moroccan counterpart, Mohamed Benaissa,
agreed to boost economic ties between the two countries and hold an
annual business forum to this end.
(AFP, 2/13/06)
2006 Mar 25, Morocco's King
Mohammed VI wrapped up a 6-day visit to Western Sahara with talks on a
plan to give the territory greater autonomy which will be submitted
soon to the UN.
(AFP, 3/25/06)
2006 Apr 3, Morocco’s state news
agency MAP said security forces were holding nine suspected al Qaeda
activists. Local newspapers said they were part of a ring that plotted
bomb attacks in France, Italy and Morocco.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 18, In Morocco an appeals
court upheld record damages imposed on a weekly newsmagazine in a
defamation suit that some rights groups say the government is using to
intimidate independent media.
(AP, 4/18/06)
2006 Apr 22, Morocco's King
Mohammed VI pardoned all prisoners from the disputed territory of
Western Sahara currently being held in jails in the kingdom.
(AFP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 28, It was reported that
Morocco has just graduated its first team of women preachers to be
deployed as a vanguard in the kingdom's fight against any slide towards
Islamic extremism. A pioneer group of 50 Morchidat, or guides, finished
a 12-month course in early April. They were trained to "accompany and
orient" Muslim faithful, notably in prisons, hospitals and schools.
(AFP, 4/28/06)
2006 May 19, In Morocco the prime
ministers of Morocco and Pakistan expressed hopes for closer bilateral
ties, especially economically, after inking several agreements during a
visit by Pakistan's Shaukat Aziz.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 Jun 2, The 12th edition of
the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music opened in Fez, Morocco. It
brought together spiritual and religious music from Syria, Iran, India,
Mali, Latin America, Japan, Tibet, Azerbaijan and the Mediterranean
under the theme of "harmonies."
(AFP, 6/4/06)
2006 Jun 25, In Morocco police
reported that 4 men were arrested in Rabat in connection with the
February 22 theft of more than 53 million pounds from a Kent cash
depot, considered Britain's biggest ever bank robbery.
(AFP, 6/26/06)
2006 Jun 28, Morocco and the US
agreed to give the African country's exports to North America a boost.
(AFP, 6/28/06)
2006 Jul 10, In Morocco ministers
from 57 European and African countries gathered in Rabat to seek ways
to combat illegal immigration to Europe "with dignity but firmness",
from tightening border controls to stimulating African development.
(AFP, 7/10/06)
2006 Aug 7, Morocco’s state news
agency reported that security services have arrested 44 suspected
terrorists and dismantled a network allegedly planning attacks.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Sep 1, Morocco’s Interior
Ministry said security agents broke up a group planning terrorist
attacks on tourist sites and government facilities, arresting 56 people
who included soldiers and the wives of two pilots at the state airline.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 7, Russia's state-owned
nuclear power company said it was seeking to build Morocco's first
nuclear plant, as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed cooperation
deals with the Moroccan king as part of an economic mission to expand
Russia's African reach.
(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Oct 24, Moroccan King Mohamed
VI pardoned 617 prisoners in honor of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking
the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
(AP, 10/24/06)
2006 Oct 30, In Morocco the
world's five leading nuclear powers and eight other nations kicked off
a new program aimed at keeping nuclear weapons beyond the reach of
terrorists. Morocco became the first Arab state to join a global
initiative led by Russia and the United States to combat nuclear
terrorism.
(AP, 10/31/06)(Reuters, 10/31/06)
2006 Nov 10, in Morocco 3 former
detainees at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were
convicted for creating a criminal group and forging documents.
(AP, 11/11/06)
2006 Dec 5, Pro-Moroccan leaders
in the Western Sahara presented a self-rule plan for a government,
parliament and legal system in the territory, while acknowledging
Rabat's sovereignty.
(AFP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 8, The MAP news agency
said Qatar will invest 335 million dollars in tourist development
schemes in the northern Moroccan city of Tangiers.
(AFP, 12/8/06)
2006 Dec 18, A senior government
official said money sent home by Moroccans overseas amounted to 40.7
billion dirhams (3.6 billion euros) last year, or roughly 9 percent of
Morocco's gross domestic product.
(AFP, 12/18/06)
2007 Jan 15, The editor and a
journalist at a Moroccan news weekly that published jokes relating to
Islam were convicted of insulting the religion. The court gave
three-year suspended sentences to Driss Ksikes, editor of Nichane, and
to journalist Sanaa al-Aji. Both were barred from journalistic activity
with Nichane for two months and the independent Arab-language magazine
was suspended for two months. They were fined $9,280 each.
(AP, 1/15/07)(AP, 1/30/07)
2007 Jan 16, King Mohammed VI of
Morocco launched work on a major road linking Fez to the Algerian
border as part of construction on a north African highway stretching
from Mauritania to Libya. Construction of the 328-kilometer road
(204-mile) from Fez to the eastern city of Oudja, on the border with
Algeria, is expected to cost 820 million euros (one billion dollars).
(AFP, 1/17/07)
2007 Jan 19, Five Moroccans sent
home from the Guantanamo US military camp in 2004 were acquitted of
terrorism charges leveled at them on their return.
(Reuters, 1/19/07)
2007 Mar 1, Morocco’s King
Mohammed VI pardoned 8,836 prisoners to celebrate the birth of his baby
girl. Princess Lalla Salma gave birth to a baby girl a day earlier. The
king also reduced the sentences of 24,218 other prisoners.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 2, In Morocco 12 Islamic
militants were convicted of terrorism-related charges, including eight
with alleged ties to al-Qaida who had volunteered to fight in Iraq.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 3, In northern Morocco a
bus skidded off a treacherous mountain road, killing nine people and
injuring 45 others.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 6, Moroccan officials
arrested Saad Houssaini, an alleged member of a terrorist group that is
believed linked to the 2004 Madrid bombings and 2003 attacks in
Casablanca.
(AFP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 11, In Morocco a man with
explosives hidden under his clothes had a dispute with the owner of an
Internet café in Casablanca and a blast occurred as the two men
were coming to blows. Another man at the scene who attempted to flee
was arrested by police and found to be carrying explosives.
(Reuters, 3/12/07)
2007 Apr 10, Moroccan police
surrounded a building in Casablanca where four terrorism suspects were
holed, causing three to flee and blow themselves up with explosives.
The fourth was shot dead by a police sharpshooter as he apparently
tried to detonate his bomb.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 Apr 11, Morocco presented its
plan to grant self-rule to the disputed Western Sahara territory to
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2007 Apr 12, Morocco’s police
detained two men near the scene of three suicide bombings in
Casablanca, and a police official said one was carrying explosives.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 14, In Morocco 2 brothers
strapped with explosives blew themselves up near the US consulate.
Moroccan officials said they had discovered a broader suicide bombing
conspiracy.
(AP, 4/14/07)
2007 May 2, Ahmed Errachidi (41) a
Moroccan man sent home from the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay
last week, was released by local authorities after terrorism-related
charges were dropped.
(Reuters, 5/3/07)
2007 May 8, The Moroccan
Association of Human Rights, formed in 1979) announced that it had
chosen Khadija Ryadi (47) as its first woman president.
(AFP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 17, Moroccan police
clashed with student protestors from Western Sahara demanding an end to
Rabat's control over the disputed region.
(AP, 5/17/07)
2007 May 20, Police in
Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara arrested three leading human rights
campaigners following weeks of crackdowns against students and
activists in the territory.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 30, Moroccans were able
to access the video sharing Web site YouTube for the first time since
access was blocked last week.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 Jun 6, Morocco said
scientists from Morocco, Britain, France and Germany had dated
perforated shells in a limestone cave in eastern Morocco to 82,000
years ago, the oldest adornments ever found.
(AP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jul 2, UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon reissued a report on the Western Sahara that eliminated
controversial recommendations on the future of the disputed region.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 4, The foreign ministers
of Israel and Morocco held their first publicly disclosed talks in
years, with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the heart of the
discussion.
(AP, 7/4/07)
2007 Jul 6, EU officials said they
have asked Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia to join patrols of Europe's
border control agency in a bid to stop massive clandestine immigration.
(AFP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 21, Italian police
arrested three Moroccans, an imam and two of his aids, they accuse of
being part of a militant cell that allegedly used a mosque in a central
Italian city as a terror training camp.
(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul, Tanger Med, a new
seaport on northern Morocco, opened its frist docks. Over the next 8
years it was expected to become the largest container port in the
Mediterranean.
(Econ, 7/12/08, p.78)
2007 Aug 7, Ahmed Benchemsi, the
publisher of two Moroccan weeklies charged with showing disrespect to
the monarchy, defended himself, reserving the right to criticize his
country's political system. A day earlier magistrates in Casablanca
charged Benchemsi, the publisher of the Nishan and TelQuel weeklies,
and ordered him to stand trial.
(AFP, 8/7/07)
2007 Aug 27, Morocco's former
interior minister, Driss Basri (69), died in a Paris hospital, to be
mourned in some circles as a loyal servant of the crown and condemned
by others as a ruthless axeman.
(AFP, 8/27/07)
2007 Sep 1, In Morocco
Renault-Nissan head Carlos Ghosn signed a deal to build an assembly
plant in Tangiers, with a planned investment of one billion euros (1.36
billion dollars) and final capacity of 400,000 vehicles.
(AFP, 9/1/07)
2007 Sep 7, Moroccans began voting
in parliamentary elections likely to make the country's leading
political force an Islamist party that has tapped into people's
mounting disillusionment with the parties in power. The main opposition
Islamist party failed to make its hoped-for breakthrough in legislative
elections, marked by an historic low turnout of only 41 percent. Voters
handed power to a secular conservative party that is a member of the
ruling coalition.
(AP, 9/7/07)(AFP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 9, Moroccan nationalist
party Istiqlal vowed to keep an alliance with socialists after emerging
as the surprise winner in elections marred by the lowest turnout ever
in the north African nation.
(AP, 9/9/07)
2007 Sep 10, Final election
results showed that Morocco's conservative Istiqlal party won the most
seats in parliamentary elections, allowing it to form the next
government with its current ruling coalition allies.
(AP, 9/10/07)
2007 Sep 19, Morocco’s King
Mohammed VI named Abbas El Fassi (67), a longtime government minister
and the leader of a secular political party, as prime minister. He
replaced Driss Jettou, a longtime businessman who had served since 2002.
(AP, 9/19/07)
2007 Oct 15, Moroccan leaders,
after nearly a month of tough negotiations, formed a new government
that includes seven women but no one from the Islamic party that placed
second in September's parliamentary elections.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 22,
French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Morocco's King Mohammed
XVI and signed a string of deals aimed at fostering closer cooperation
between the two countries and economic development projects.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Nov 7, Moroccan PM Abbas El
Fassi condemned Spain's "occupation" of two disputed enclaves, in the
wake of a visit by Spain's King Juan Carlos which prompted Rabat to
recall its ambassador to Madrid.
(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 18, German prosecutors
filed terrorism charges against a Moroccan man, identified as Abdelali
M. (25), was accused of helping recruit foreign fighters for al-Qaida
in Iraq. He was arrested in Sweden in March and handed over to Germany
in May.
(AP, 12/20/07)
2008 Jan 4, A Moroccan court
sentenced 51 Islamists of the Ansar El Mahdi group to between two and
25 years in jail for plotting to overthrow the government here and
install an Islamist regime.
(AFP, 1/4/08)
2008 Jan 8, A human rights
campaign group called on Morocco to stop "muzzling" independence
campaigners in the vast disputed region of Western Sahara, as
UN-brokered peace talks on the 32-year row got underway in New York.
(AP, 1/8/08)
2008 Jan 9, The latest round of
UN-led peace talks between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario
Front ended in stalemate, with the two sides agreeing to try again in
March to resolve a 32-year dispute for control of Western Sahara.
(AP, 1/9/08)
2008 Jan 13, King Abdullah II of
Jordan arrived on a three-day official visit to Morocco for talks on
boosting cooperation between the Arab allies.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 16, In Morocco 16 people
were killed and 30 injured when an apartment block being built in
Kenitra collapsed.
(AFP, 1/17/08)
2008 Jan 18, Renault-Nissan signed
an accord with the Moroccan government for what it says will be one of
its largest automobile-making operations in the world, set to be
constructed near Tangiers.
(AFP, 1/18/08)
2008 Feb 12, A boat was wrecked
off southern Morocco leaving 24 African migrants missing, but 11 others
were rescued.
(AFP, 2/13/08)
2008 Mar 9, Moroccan security
forces arrested 19 members of the country's largest Islamic opposition
group. Another 25 were arrested as day earlier after they tried to hold
marches in solidarity with the Palestinians.
(Reuters, 3/10/08)
2008 Apr 7, In Morocco 9 Islamists
serving long sentences for the deadly 2003 Casablanca bombings escaped
from Kenitra prison, north of Rabat. In January, 2009, Hicham Alami one
of the escapees who had been sentenced to life, was captured in Algeria
and returned to Morocco.
(AFP, 4/7/08)(AP, 1/9/09)
2008 Apr 18, In Morocco French PM
Francois Fillon announced the signing of economic tie-ups with Morocco,
alongside the sale of a naval warship to aid defense coordination.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 26, In Morocco fire broke
out at a mattress factory in Casablanca, killing at least 55 people,
and fire-fighters were still searching the smoldering building for more
bodies.
(Reuters, 4/26/08)(AFP, 4/27/08)
2008 Apr 27, A summit aimed at
kick-starting Maghreb economic integration was disrupted when Moroccan
and Algerian government ministers clashed over the disputed Western
Sahara region.
(AFP, 4/28/08)
2008 Jun 7, In Morocco violent
clashes between unemployed youths and the police left 44 people
including 27 police officers injured in the southwestern port of Sidi
Ifni.
(AFP, 6/7/08)
2008 Jun 10, A Moroccan court
convicted 29 people of planning terrorism attacks and supporting
combatants in Iraq.
(AP, 6/12/08)
2008 Jun 19, A Moroccan court
ordered a newspaper to stop publishing testimony given by victims of
years of repression under late king Hassan II to a royal truth
commission.
(AFP, 6/19/08)
2008 Jun 30, The Socialist
International (SI), meeting in Lagonissi, Greece, granted observer
status to the Polisario Front, a group fighting for full independence
in Western Sahara. The disputed Western Sahara region is largely
controlled by Morocco, but the Algerian-backed Polisario Front is
committed to securing independence.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 2, The Moroccan news
agency said 35 alleged recruiters for Al-Qaeda operations in Algeria
and Iraq were arrested by police in Morocco, where they were also
accused of planning attacks. The suspects allegedly belong to a
Salafist group, Salafiya Jihadiya.
(AFP, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 19, Morocco's police
seized more than 10 tons of drugs during raids in the north of the
country and along its coasts.
(AP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 30, Morocco's King
Mohammed VI condemned Algeria's continuing closure of their common
border, despite repeated calls by Rabat for it to be reopened. Algiers
has set a global settlement of the conflict in Western Sahara as a
precondition for reopening the border, which it closed in 1994 after
Morocco claimed Algerian secret service agents were behind an Islamist
extremist attack in Marrakesh.
(AFP, 7/30/08)
2008 Sep 9, Morocco said it would
start vaccinating all livestock after the outbreak of Peste des Petits
Ruminants, a deadly viral disease, ahead of the Eid festival when
millions of animals are sacrificed.
(AFP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 24, In Morocco at least
12 people were killed and 43 injured when a bus overturned in the
southern province of Taroudannt.
(AFP, 9/25/08)
2008 Oct 30, Morocco’s
Interior Minister Chakib Benmoussa said flooding over the last week has
killed 28 people and caused major damage in various parts of the
country.
(AFP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 30, Scientists reported
that 1 in 17 men living on the coasts of North Africa and southern
europe may have a Phoenician direct male line ancestor. Evidence was
based on Y-chromosomes collected in Cyprus, Malta, Morocco, the West
Bank, Syria and Tunisia.
(SFC, 10/31/08, p.A14)
2008 Nov 2, The Moroccan
government banned an issue of the French magazine L'Express
International, claiming it insults Islam in articles exploring the
relationship between that religion and Christianity.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2009 Jan 5, Ahmed Aboutaleb (47),
a Moroccan immigrant, was installed as mayor of Rotterdam, the
Netherlands' second largest city, in a move hailed as a significant
step for the integration of minorities in the European Union nation.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Feb 7, Officials in Morocco
said heavy rains have claimed 24 lives and forced 2,000 people to be
evacuated over the past week.
(AFP, 2/7/09)
2009 Feb 15, A rickety boat
carrying illegal migrants from Morocco capsized in rough seas just off
Spain's Canary Islands and 19 of them drowned. At least three were
missing.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Morocco Abdelkader
Belliraj (50) was arrested together with a number of other people,
allegedly in possession of a large arsenal of firearms. The
Belgian-Moroccan national was suspected of spearheading a presumed
35-member terrorist ring.
(AFP, 4/3/09)
2009 Mar 2, In Morocco Hassan Al
Haski (41), a Moroccan man already convicted over the 2004 Madrid
bombings, was sentenced on appeal to 10 years in jail for his role in
suicide attacks the year before in Casablanca that killed 45 people.
(AFP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 6, Morocco cut diplomatic
links with Iran after an outcry in the Sunni Muslim world over a
statement by an Iranian official questioning Sunni-ruled Bahrain's
sovereignty.
(Reuters, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 17, Portuguese police
said they have captured more than 7.7 tons (7 metric tons) of hashish
from Morocco with an estimated street value of more than euro70 million
(US$91 million). Police said they netted the drug in a series of
coordinated operations over three days beginning last weekend.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 24, It was reported that
the Moroccan government has begun a clampdown on what it sees as
threats to the kingdom's religious and moral foundations, with Shiite
Islam and gays particularly targeted.
(AFP, 3/24/09)
2009 Apr 2, Morocco transferred to
Spain Hassan Al Haski, an Islamist convicted in both countries for
terrorist acts, apparently to resume serving time behind bars there.
(AFP, 4/3/09)
2009 Apr 11, Morocco blamed
Algeria for a "serious and blatant" violation by the Polisario Front of
an 18-year-long ceasefire in the disputed Western Sahara and urged the
UN to intervene.
(Reuters, 4/11/09)
2009 May 12, Moroccan authorities
announced the arrest of a group of alleged Islamists, who planned to
attack Jewish interests in the country. The suspects, alleged to be
members of a cell that was part of the radical Islamist movement
Salafia Jihadia, were also said to be preparing attacks against
Moroccan security services.
(AFP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 22, Police in Morocco
uncovered more than 20 tons of cannabis resin, one of the country's
largest ever hash hauls, hidden in steel crates destined for France.
(AFP, 5/23/09)
2009 May 24, In Morocco 11 people
were killed in a stampede at a stadium in the capital, Rabat, overnight
when thousands of spectators hurried to leave at the end of a concert
wrapping up the city's landmark music festival.
(AP, 5/24/09)
2009 Jun 3, Moroccan customs
officers seized 19.5 tons of cannabis resin worth about 17.3 million
euros (24.5 million dollars) at the northern port of Nadir. The drugs
were concealed in a lorry transporting frozen octopus from a seafood
processing plant in the southern town of Agadir and the Italian driver
and his Spanish companion were arrested.
(AFP, 6/4/09)
2009 Jun 12, Moroccans voted in a
local election that opposition Islamists hope will extend their
influence in big cities.
(AP, 6/12/09)
2009 Jun 13, In Morocco with more
than 80% of seats counted, the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM)
had 4,854 seats, ahead of the governing Istiqlal (Independence) party
with 4,246. PAM, founded by Fouad Ali El Himma, was created last year
by lawmakers from five parties. It has positioned itself as an
alternative to both opposition Islamists and Istiqlal, and has sought
to combat voter apathy with promises to follow through on policy
commitments. Provisional figures put the turnout at 51%.
(Reuters, 6/13/09)(Econ, 7/4/09, p.42)
2009 Jun 15, Libyan leader Moamer
Kadhafi sued three Moroccan newspapers for defamation, seeking eight
million euros in damages for "attacks on the dignity of a head of
state."
(AFP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 26, In Morocco a security
official said security forces have arrested five suspected members of a
militant cell that operated in Morocco and Spain. The five alleged
members of the Salafiya Jihadia group, whose leader uses the pseudonym
Abou Yacine, were picked up during the course of the week.
(AFP, 6/26/09)
2009 Jun 29, Three Moroccan
newspapers were ordered to pay a total of three million dirhams
(270,000 euros) to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, who had sued them for
writing critical articles.
(AFP, 6/29/09)
2009 Jul 28, In Morocco a man
accused of leading a terrorist network was sentenced to life in prison
for terror attacks in Morocco, holdups in Europe, large-scale money
laundering projects and arms trafficking. Abdelkader Belliraj (51), a
dual Moroccan-Belgian national, had faced the death penalty. 34
co-defendants were handed sentences ranging from 30 years in prison to
one-year suspended sentences.
(AP, 7/28/09)
2009 Jul 29, Morocco's King
Mohammed VI (45), on the eve of commemorations of his 10th anniversary
on the throne, granted pardons to 24,865 prisoners, and commuted 32
death sentences.
(AFP, 7/29/09)
2009 Aug 1, Two Moroccan magazines
were taken off news stands after they published an opinion poll on the
10 years under the reign of King Mohammed VI. The poll revealed that
91% of Moroccans who were interviewed say that the performance of the
reign of King Mohammed VI is positive or very positive.
(AFP, 8/1/09)
2009 Sep 19, Off the Moroccan
coast an inflatable dinghy sank before dawn off Perejil, a rocky
Spanish-owned islet in the Mediterranean Sea. Some 42 would-be illegal
immigrants were crammed onto the boat. 11 migrants from Niger and
Senegal survived and 8 bodies were recovered. The next day the 11
migrants were expelled from Morocco.
(AFP, 9/21/09)(AFP, 9/22/09)
2009 Sep 23, Morocco’s interior
ministry said security services have arrested 24 members of a
"terrorist network" linked to Al-Qaeda that recruited volunteers for
suicide bombings in Iraq.
(AFP, 9/23/09)
2009 Oct 6, Moroccan police began
rounding up 276 young people and continued with an overnight crackdown
on juvenile delinquency in Sale, the twin town of the capital Rabat.
(AFP, 10/7/09)
2009 Nov 1, US Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Morocco for a series of meetings with
Arab leaders to discuss Middle East peace and other issues.
(AP, 11/1/09)
2009 Nov 3, In Morocco US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a package of measures
designed to help businesses and non-governmental groups around the
Muslim world. Clinton made the announcement at the sixth Forum for the
Future conference in Marrakech, which she attended for two days.
(AFP, 11/3/09)
2009 Nov 4, Morocco ordered the
immediate departure of a Swedish diplomat accused of handing official
Moroccan documents to Western Sahara-linked "separatists."
(AFP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 13, Moroccan authorities
detained a Western Sahara activist close to the Polisario Front rebels,
Aminatou Haidar, in the disputed territory's main city. Haidar, the
winner of several human rights awards, was arrested on her arrival in
Laayoune from Spain's Canary Islands. Immigration officials immediately
sent her back to Spain’s Canary Islands after confiscating her
passport. She used her Spanish residency permit to re-enter the country
and began a hunger strike in Laayoune at midnight on Nov 15.
(AFP, 11/13/09)(AFP, 11/21/09)
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Subject = Morocco
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