The problem of the violation of the sanctity of Muslim cemeteries is resurfacing in Essaouira. Last week, excavation work at the level of Bab Marrakech, undertaken by the company in charge of the redevelopment of the liquid sanitation network of the old Medina, led to the discovery of human skeletons.

The workers were surprised by these skeletons, which had visibly emerged next to the wall of Bab Marrakech following the transformation of the cemetery into a public square.

Shocked by this discovery, the company's agents immediately notified the local and security authorities to take the necessary measures to protect the sanctity of the dead, who suffer from daily attacks, especially at the level of the Sidi Megdoul cemetery. A subject that we, moreover, covered in 2008 without any reaction from the elected councils regarding the measures required to protect the tombs from the curious, vagrants, and desecrators. Yet, the Municipal Charter imputes the responsibility for the management and maintenance of cemeteries to the elected councils, which assume this burden in collaboration with the respective ministries of the Interior and Habous, and sometimes even the Ministry of Culture when it comes to historical tombs.

This problem is not a Souiri specificity. It is rather a national phenomenon that was clearly recognised by the Minister of Habous and Islamic Affairs, Ahmed Taoufik, by acknowledging in 2009 before Parliament that the situation of cemeteries was deplorable.

The National Human Rights Council had made an effort in this direction by publishing in 2012 a study carried out by Jamal Bami and entitled "The situation of Muslim cemeteries in Morocco and practical proposals to remedy it". An initiative that displayed the ambition to see cemeteries transformed into "landscape cemeteries" within the framework of an integrated management of urban space.

After reviewing the negative aspects tarnishing the image of cemeteries (absence of partitions, lack of maintenance, poor organisation, lack of electricity and drinking water, and security service, intrusion of vagrants, delinquents, animals, and desecrators), Jamal Bami had proposed, among other things, the activation, in the first place, of laws concerning the management and maintenance of cemeteries, which must be taken care of by the competent services, and the creation of model cemeteries by involving civil society with a view to putting in place permanent mechanisms for the maintenance and protection of cemeteries in Morocco, which are far from rivalling those of other faiths.