#Guantemara: Heavy-handed Response to Peaceful Demonstration in Morocco

The Moroccan pro-democracy movement known as February 20 has called for the organization of a picnic today near what activists say is a secret detention center located in Temara, in the outskirts of the capital Rabat.

The peaceful gathering was violently broken up by Moroccan anti-riot police which used truncheons to disperse the crowd.

Activists were then chased in the streets of Hay Riad, a neighborhood of the capital Rabat.

Many witnesses I spoke to on the phone expressed disbelief at the disproportionate police deployment and the violent, unwarranted, unprovoked repression of pro-democracy activists, leaving hundreds wounded, some seriously beaten in the head and nose.

Morocco: Pro-Democracy Activists to March on Secret Detention Center

This Sunday, May 15, Moroccan pro-democracy activists are planning to march on a detention center, located in the region of Temara, in the outskirts of the capital Rabat.

Many prisoners, mostly Islamists, allege they have been detained and tortured in the center, which is also believed to be part of a network of so-called Black Sites, used by the CIA to interrogate international terrorist suspects.