Treatment of the participants in the so-called million-man march is a test of the tolerance of an absolute monarch trying to discard this pariah status and gain international acceptability.

Organisers from the Al-Hirak al-Shaabi movement have focussed their demonstration on the main port in the Rif region.

That’s where protests were sparked last year by a fishmonger being crushed to death in a rubbish truck as he tried to retrieve swordfish confiscated by authorities.

Rif residents have long complained of neglect and marginalisation.

Al-Hirak has won strong support among the region’s diaspora and many former Rif residents living abroad have returned to the city to join the march.

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He was crushed by a compactor after he jumped into a garbage truck to retrieve his merchandise thrown there by police.

The tragic death of 31-year-old Mouhcine Fikri event occurred in the northern port city of Al Hoceima.

Protests there spread y to cities like Marrakesh and Rabat, the capital.

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI ordered the prosecution of  anyone who’s  broken the law.

Police reportedly asked for the trash compactor to be activated to stop Fikri and friends who dived into the garbage truck to retrieve R120 000  worth of swordfish, a protected species in Morocco, that the police had thrown there.

The protests that led to the fall of Tunisian strongman Ben Ali were sparked by the death of a fruit seller bullied by police.

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