Mohamed Oufkir
Encyclopedia
General
Mohammad Oufkir (1920? - Rabat
, 16 August 1972) was a Moroccan
Berber politician.
As the right hand man of king Hassan II in the 1960s and early 1970s, Oufkir led government supervision of politicians, unionists and the religious establishment. He forcefully repressed political protest through police and military clampdowns, pervasive government espionage, show trials, and numerous extralegal measures such as killings and forced disappearance
s. A feared figure in dissident circles, he was considered extraordinarily close to power. One of his most famous victims is believed to have been celebrated third-world politician Mehdi Ben Barka
, who had "disappeared" in Paris in 1965. A French court convicted him of the murder.http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2001/542/re5.htmhttp://www.moroccotimes.com/paper/article.asp?idr=11&id=10705
In 1967, Oufkir was named interior minister, vastly increasing his power through direct control over most of the security establishment. After a failed republican military coup in 1971 he was named chief of staff and minister of defense, and set about purging the army and promoting his personal supporters. His domination of the Moroccan political scene was now near-complete, with the king ever more reliant on him to contain mounting discontent.
General Oufkir was accused of plotting the 1972 Republican coup attempt against King Hassan II. Though official sources claimed that the General had committed suicide in response to the failure of the coup, his daughter, Malika Oufkir, writing in her book "Stolen Lives", claims to have seen five bullet wounds in her father's body, all in positions not consistent with suicide. It is generally accepted outside of official circles that Oufkir was executed by forces loyal to the Moroccan monarchy.
On orders of the king, Oufkir's entire family was then sent to secret desert
prison camps.http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/jul1999/hass-j28_prn.shtml They were not released until 1991, after US and European pressures on the regime. After five years under close police supervision, they fled to France. This story is detailed by Oufkir's daughter Malika
in the book Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail
. His wife Fatima and his son Raouf also published their accounts of the period.
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
Mohammad Oufkir (1920? - Rabat
Rabat
Rabat , is the capital and third largest city of the Kingdom of Morocco with a population of approximately 650,000...
, 16 August 1972) was a Moroccan
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
Berber politician.
As the right hand man of king Hassan II in the 1960s and early 1970s, Oufkir led government supervision of politicians, unionists and the religious establishment. He forcefully repressed political protest through police and military clampdowns, pervasive government espionage, show trials, and numerous extralegal measures such as killings and forced disappearance
Forced disappearance
In international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the...
s. A feared figure in dissident circles, he was considered extraordinarily close to power. One of his most famous victims is believed to have been celebrated third-world politician Mehdi Ben Barka
Mehdi Ben Barka
Mehdi Ben Barka was a Moroccan politician, head of the left-wing National Union of Popular Forces and secretary of the Tricontinental Conference...
, who had "disappeared" in Paris in 1965. A French court convicted him of the murder.http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2001/542/re5.htmhttp://www.moroccotimes.com/paper/article.asp?idr=11&id=10705
In 1967, Oufkir was named interior minister, vastly increasing his power through direct control over most of the security establishment. After a failed republican military coup in 1971 he was named chief of staff and minister of defense, and set about purging the army and promoting his personal supporters. His domination of the Moroccan political scene was now near-complete, with the king ever more reliant on him to contain mounting discontent.
General Oufkir was accused of plotting the 1972 Republican coup attempt against King Hassan II. Though official sources claimed that the General had committed suicide in response to the failure of the coup, his daughter, Malika Oufkir, writing in her book "Stolen Lives", claims to have seen five bullet wounds in her father's body, all in positions not consistent with suicide. It is generally accepted outside of official circles that Oufkir was executed by forces loyal to the Moroccan monarchy.
On orders of the king, Oufkir's entire family was then sent to secret desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
prison camps.http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/jul1999/hass-j28_prn.shtml They were not released until 1991, after US and European pressures on the regime. After five years under close police supervision, they fled to France. This story is detailed by Oufkir's daughter Malika
Malika Oufkir
Malika Oufkir is a Moroccan writer and former "disappeared". She is the daughter of General Mohamed Oufkir and a cousin of fellow Moroccan writer and actress Leila Shenna....
in the book Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail
Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail
Stolen Lives: Twenty Years In A Desert Jail is an autobiographical book by Malika Oufkir, about a woman who was essentially a prisoner all her life.-Summary:...
. His wife Fatima and his son Raouf also published their accounts of the period.
Further reading
- Malika Oufkir and Michèle FitoussiMichèle FitoussiMichèle Fitoussi is the co-author, along with Malika Oufkir, of Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail, an expose of the Moroccan penal system. She is of Tunisian descent and was the editor of French Elle magazine. She first met Malika Oufkir in March 1997 eight months after Malika had arrived...
(2001), Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail, Miramax Books (ISBN 0-7868-6861-9 )
External links
- BBC Article on Malika Oufkir and recorded interview
- Oprah Winfrey's Book Club The Oufkir family: Where are they now?
- ArabicNews On three Moroccan weeklies banned in 2000, after articles tied the ruling USFP party to Oufkir's plot