AN UNFINISHED JOB: ACCOUNTING FOR THE DISAPPEARED

C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 001535

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/28/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM AG
SUBJECT: AN UNFINISHED JOB: ACCOUNTING FOR THE DISAPPEARED

REF: ALGIERS 1514

Classified By: DCM Thomas F. Daughton for reasons 1.4 (b, d).


1. (SBU) As the deadline for terrorists to lay down their
arms under the National Charter for Peace and Reconciliation
(reftel) arrived August 28, SOS Disparus, an Algerian NGO
that advocates on behalf of victims of the civil strife of
the 1990s, was still maintaining that the Charter had not
gone far enough to provide closure for families. The Charter
provides a mechanism for reintegrating repentant terrorists
into Algerian society. It also seeks to offer emotional
closure to families of victims, including through financial
compensation and death certificates for the disappeared.


2. (SBU) Fatima Yous, head of SOS Disparus, believes that
Algerians did not "disappear" during the 1990s, but were
kidnapped. In an hour-long meeting with poloff August 21,
she expressed frustration that President Bouteflika would not
meet with her organization. She also asserted that Algerian
terrorists from the civil war had benefited from the Charter,
while families of the disappeared had not. Yous explained
that some families were refusing to accept GOA-approved
compensation for the death of disappeared family members
because doing so implied closure in the absence of truth or
accountability about the disappearances.


3. (SBU) SOS Disparus does not accept the GOA's explanation
for many disappearances -- that the individuals were
inadvertently caught in skirmishes between troops/police and
terrorists -- because the government has not produced any
bodies, which Yous contends remain buried in mass graves.
Yous claims that Algerians are reluctant to show support for
SOS Disparus publicly, out of fear of police reprisal. The
Algerian press similarly refuses to publish SOS Disparus
statements, she said, fearing prosecution under the rules of
the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation. Given
that situation, according to Yous, the NGO uses the mail,
telephone and home visits to maintain contact with Algerians
affected by disappearances.

COMMENT
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4. (C) President Bouteflika views the Charter as the vehicle
to move Algeria forward on the issue of the disappeared. He
has not met with SOS Disparus, but Charter architect Farouk
Ksentini has done so on several occasions. SOS Disparus is
the most prominent Algerian organization advocating on behalf
of the disappeared, and human rights activists and diplomats
respect its work. The families of victims of "the national
tragedy," as the civil strife of the 1990s is commonly
called, are also strongly supportive of the NGO. Algerians
associated with the security services consider the NGO to be
a thorn in their side, but seem more inclined in the
post-Charter environment to let the organization go about its
work unimpeded. They can afford to be more flexible because
the Charter has freed them from prosecution for crimes they
may have committed.


5. (C) While it is harder to say what ordinary Algerians
think of advocacy for the disappeared, there is much sympathy
for the group's view that soldiers and police implicated in
the deaths of civilians in the 1990s should have -- and still
could -- come forward and publicly confess their involvement.
Algerians broadly applaud Bouteflika's efforts to turn the
page on the atrocities of the 1990s, but unanswered questions
remain at all levels of society about the role the state
played in civilian deaths during those years.
FORD