Human Rights in Morocco - Police and Army Reforms

Police and Army Reforms

In 2006 Morocco started implementing a few reforms related to policing and the army. On October 16 of the same year a newly established Groupes urbains de sécurité (GUS) (Urban Security Groups) police unit was disbanded.

While many Moroccans regarded the presence of GUS as a relief, many others considered it as a step back to the rule of the Makhzen.

The disbanding came after many criticisms about excesses or abuses of power were noted. Some irresponsible actions of certain members of the unit turned over the public opinion which became discreditory.

GUS were also accused of corruption. In many cases, civil offenders used to pay a bribe (between 10 and 20 dirhams) which led to the appearance of the popular nickname; "10 drahem".

Read more about this topic:  Human Rights In Morocco

Famous quotes containing the words police, army and/or reforms:

    “There was never a man born so wise or good, but one or more companions came into the world with him, who delight in his faculty, and report it. I cannot see without awe, that no man thinks alone and no man acts alone, but the divine assessors who came up with him into life,—now under one disguise, now under another,—like a police in citizen’s clothes, walk with him, step for step, through all kingdoms of time.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “To make an Army work you have to have every man in it fitted into a fear ladder.... The Army functions best when you’re frightened of the man above you, and contemptuous of your subordinates.”
    —Norman Mailer (b. 1923)

    “One of the reforms to be carried out during the incoming administration is a change in our monetary and banking laws, so as to secure greater elasticity in the forms of currency available for trade and to prevent the limitations of law from operating to increase the embarrassment of a financial panic.”
    —William Howard Taft (1857–1930)