By Youssef El Kaidi
Morocco World News
Fez, January 21, 2013
“This is unfair, this is a disgrace, the Douar is shut-off/ Why did we come and protest, it’s only the road that we want after they closed our only hospital/ Governments successively alternate but the miserable case is the same.” Thus shouted the throats of angry peasants from the remote tribes of Oulad Ghzal and Oulad Boutin in Beni oulid, Taounate (241 km north east Rabat) Wednesday, January 16th.
The protesters headed down from their mountainous tribes to the rural municipality in Bni oulid and then to the local authorities in Taounate center asking for urgent measures to build their road and re-open the only small hospital in the far off douar.
About 50 peasants and some other volunteers from Bni Oulid participated in the protest and held a sit-in for about 2 hours in the foyer of the rural municipality but the local council members were deaf to their calls for dialogue.
Thus, the protestors decided to move ahead to the local authorities in the province of Taounate where their voices mixed with those of other protesters from Outa Bouaban raising the same demands.
The local authorities in Taounate listened to the protestors and promised that a technical committee will be assigned immediately to move and inspect the condition of the road which is badly damaged between Sidi Soussan and Timdghas, and decide upon the type and the size of intervention the soonest possible.
As to the closed rural hospital, the representative of the regional authority explained that there is a dire shortage of medical staff in the whole province!!
Representatives of the protesters expressed their hope to expedite the creation of a viable and lasting solution to the problem of isolation and marginalization that worsens every winter due to rain and snow.
They also stressed their determination to continue their protest which may take unprecedented forms in case their demands come to a deadlock.
It should be noted that a state of indignation and resentment permeates the population because of the indifference shown by the authorities in face of their social conditions and poor infrastructure every time; a case which will lead to other forms of protests by the population to draw attention to their plight.
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