A-Infos (en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL - rally, Justice and truth for Medhi Ben Barka, on 29 October in Paris (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]

51 years after the abduction and disappearance of Mehdi Ben Barka, socialist militant 
Third World and Pan-Africanist, the status unreason must give way to political reason and 
truth. In support of victims of enforced disappearance against forgetting and impunity. 
---- "What is important is the definition of powers and responsibilities to the people, 
and the establishment of authentically popular institutions" ---- - Mehdi Ben Barka ---- 
We would like to reproduce below the text "Ben Barka and his killers," an interview with 
Bechir Ben Barka's son, Mehdi Ben Barka, who leads the Committee for the truth about Ben 
Barka affair. This interview was conducted in 1995, and is available on the website 
www.danielguerin.info ---- for more information, we also recommend: ---- 1965: Mehdi Ben 
Barka was kidnapped and murdered

Said Bouamama, "Figures of the African revolution, De Kenyatta Sankara"
PARIS
Saturday, October 29, at 18:00
Boulevard Saint-Germain facing the Brasserie LIPP
Metro: Saint-Germain-des-Prés or Mabillon

The call with the list of signatory organizations

Ben Barka and his killers

Medhi Ben Barka, my father was arrested in front of the Brasserie Lipp, October 29, 1965 
by two French policemen. He followed them as they showed him their cards and confident, he 
rode with them in the car service. In addition to the two policemen, an officer of the 
French secret services and a mobster took place in the car that led them to 
Fontenay-le-Vicomte in the home of mobster. My father entered the house and after we do 
not know what happened. It is assumed that he was murdered, but we do not know how and we 
never found his body.

He was to meet a producer and director of a film that was to be called Basta and had to be 
screened at the opening of the Tricontinental Conference in Havana in January 1966, which 
were to meet the African liberation movements, Asia and Latin America. My father was in 
charge of political and material preparation of this conference.

There will be a convergence of interests to end my father's activities. This convergence 
will be observed among the protagonists of the case. First, the Moroccan Minister of the 
Interior, an agent of French services, hoodlums responsible for doing the dirty work, 
agents of American and Israeli secret services.

Daniel Guérin has never met my father, but as anti-colonial activist, he knew perfectly 
well the role of the latter in the anti-imperialist struggle. Immediately after removal, 
Daniel Guérin contact some personalities to reactivate the former Committee France-Maghreb 
becomes the Committee for the truth about Ben Barka affair. This committee has done a lot 
for the case not be suffocated legally and politically. I have known Daniel Guérin when I 
arrived in Paris in 1970 where we worked together.

There had been two trials in 1966 and 1967 where the kidnappers of my father were tried 
but we could never answer basic questions because we ran into the reason of state. In 
1975, we file a second complaint for the murder of my father to avoid that the case be 
definitively closed by prescription. Daniel Guerin had discovered a new element. In 1966, 
when the first survey, the so-called film producer was wanted by the French police when he 
was arrested, he "committed suicide" by two bullets in the back. In his case, they found a 
police-type questionnaire for the interrogation of my father. And nobody paid attention. 
Still in 1970, a second questionnaire was found but with handwritten comments. This is 
Daniel Guerin who concluded that the writer was none other than a certain Pierre 
Lemarchand, former Gaullist MP and former heads of spooks. Despite promises to bring as 
soon as possible the evidence of his innocence in court, it has not seen fit to reconvene 
until today.

Second blocking, that of SDECEE who is hiding behind the defense secret and refuses to 
provide records. After the election of Mitterrand, Pierre Mauroy ordered the Secret 
Service to open the files. But they provided only the elements which we already know. 
Twenty to thirty years after the kidnapping of my father, there was still no political 
will to reach the truth. I would say that there was a political will not to reveal the truth.

This can be explained in two ways: either by dubious friendships to the Moroccan regime 
had to be maintained or, and this is more serious, because the French implications are 
much deeper than what we thought before. The main obstacle in twenty years of 
investigation by Daniel Guérin and then by family and investigating judges, was the reason 
and the interest of state who did not want to remove these locks for research the truth.

What made me admire the work of Daniel Guerin, is his tenacity. He led his investigation, 
he urged witnesses to their very limits. He did not hesitate to go to Morocco to meet with 
the interior minister who was involved in the case. He neglected no element. It is true 
that sometimes we do not always agree with his conclusions; there was much discussion, 
sometimes you yelled at because he was outspoken; he did not hesitate to speak his mind 
when lawyers or family were not going into what he thought was the right direction. It is 
true that I have not always shared its findings including the way my father was murdered.

But it is certain that from the elements that could flush out some tracks appeared. Daniel 
had this foresight that allowed him to reach these conclusions.

When one reads his book about the case, which is the sum of investigations twenty years, 
this does not reflect the amount of work, investigations, nervous efforts, intellectual or 
physical and all that that also included to frustrations with blockages, the evasions of 
witnesses, given the reluctance of justice or investigators. What drove us who grew Daniel 
was this desire for justice but not only justice for justice. What drove him through this 
search for truth, besides this eagerness to reveal all the responsibilities it was, I 
believe, the will to stay true to a certain ideal and to honor the man who, for many 
peoples third world, represented by its commitment.

That's what, I have kept as a souvenir of Daniel and I know that, when he died, the search 
for truth has lost someone.

Bechir Ben Barka

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Justice-et-verite-pour-Medhi-Ben
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