Outcry over unearthing of mass grave

CASABLANCA - Moroccan authorities have unearthed a mass grave holding the remains of up to 100 people killed 24 years ago in anti-Government riots and reburied them, angering relatives and rights activists.

The excavation of the grave and the reburial of the remains in individual graves may have tampered with evidence needed to sue those who carried out the killings, campaigners said.

Witnesses and rights activists said the authorities dug up the mass grave at Casablanca's main fire station on Saturday and reburied the remains in separate graves in a nearby area.

The dead were among some 1000 people killed in anti-Government riots in Casablanca on June 20, 1981, when riot police fired into a crowd protesting against food price rises, according to human rights groups.

The discovery is part of an unprecedented truth-seeking process in Morocco after King Mohammed ordered the independent Equity and Reconciliation Commission last year to investigate human rights abuses.

The abuses was known as the "years of lead".

- REUTERS