Thousands of Moroccans took to the streets all over the country "without interference from police, who in some areas were barely in evidence," it said.

    "Today, the security forces allowed Moroccan citizens to march peacefully," Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch noted.

    In Rabat, where 2,000 demonstrators massed at Bab al-Had Square, no more than a dozen widely dispersed, unarmed uniformed policemen monitored the protests, HRW underlined.

    Whitson said that "observers were surprised that no vans filled with auxiliary forces or riot police were anywhere to be seen," stressing that there were no reports of arrests in Rabat.