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 -------------- ¶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