MANAGUA'S LEAHY HUMAN RIGHTS VETTING PROCEDURES

UNCLAS MANAGUA 000590 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR WHA/CEN AND INL/LP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: AADP MARR MASS SNAR PINS PREL PHUM PINR NU SUBJECT: MANAGUA'S LEAHY HUMAN RIGHTS VETTING PROCEDURES REF: A. 03 STATE 34981 ¶B. 05 STATE 21314 ¶C. O5 STATE 131486 Introduction -------------- ¶1. Embassy Managua's Political Section has developed a system to coordinate Leahy Amendment vetting. All candidates for USG-funded travel, training (military or civilian),or material assistance -- in-country or in the United States -- must be vetted on human rights, corruption, narcotics, or criminal grounds. Vetting is required to ensure that, to the Embassy's best knowledge, the USG does not fund travel, training, or material assistance to individuals (or groups of individuals) who have engaged in gross violations of human rights or other disqualifying activities. The legal or policy requirements governing vetting vary depending on the activity in question, and the source of funds financing the activity. ¶2. The Political Section coordinates vetting under the supervision of the Political Counselor and the INL Coordinator. The INL Coordinator will be the primary point of contact (POC). The Political Section will retain paper files (and electronic if applicable) on all vetting. Post has established a system for documenting the paper trail to demonstrate that we have conducted vettings and followed up on any derogatory findings. Post will retain the records for at least 3 years and ensure that human rights abuses involving security force units are cabled to the Department and entered into the ACES database. Vetting Requirements -------------- ¶3. Vetting requirements vary by source of funding and whether the training is for a unit or an individual. All military and police units must be vetted at Post and by the Department to be eligible for USG assistance. For DOD funded training, all individuals must be vetted at Post and by the Department. For Department of State (including INL) or other USG-funded training, members of the police and the military must be vetted individually at Post to be eligible for the training. Although not legally required by the Leahy Amendment, Post policy is to request Department concurrence. However, in some instances, this may not be possible. Civilians do not need to be vetted, although as a matter of policy, Post will vet former military and police personnel as well as public servants, both civilian and military, who participate in USG sponsored training. In these cases, Department concurrence is not required. Standard Operating Procedures -------------- ¶4. Post's standard operating procedures are as follows: Step 1: The vetting request is sent to the Political Section via email or memo. Step 2: POC circulates the names of units and/or individuals proposed for training/assistance to RSO, DEA, DAO, MILGP, CONS and ECON. Step 3: Sections review paper and electronic classified and unclassified files (including search of ACES database) for credible evidence of gross human rights violations perpetrated by unit(s) or individuals proposed for training (DEA will also check records for involvement in drug trafficking). Step 4: Sections respond in writing (e.g., via e-mail) within two weeks to the POC with results of their file search. If credible derogatory information is found that an individual or unit is responsible for gross violations of human rights, that individual or unit must be denied clearance to participate in FOAA-funded training/assistance and the individual or unit's name must be struck from the list sent to Washington for clearance. Information about the nature of the offense will be entered into the ACES database and sent by cable to the Department. Step 5: Post POC sends a classified or unclassified cable of the list of names of individuals/units on whom no derogatory information was found to WHA/CEN, and requests clearance. Post will try to ensure that the Department has at least 10 working days to conduct name checks and reply to Post. Vettings for DOD-funded training are 'good for' a period of 12 months. Vettings for other USG-funded training must be repeated each time training is planned for a unit or individual. Step 6: If vetting at the Department identifies no derogatory information, WHA/CEN transmits a cable to Post indicating that the training/assistance may proceed. The POC notifies the requesting entity that the candidates have been cleared and training or assistance may proceed. If vetting at the Department reveals derogatory information, the action Post takes depends on the whether the training is DOD-funded or FOAA-funded. If the training is DOD-funded, the POC will inform all involved and the front office, but DOD will make its own determination as to whether or not to proceed with the training. If the training is FOAA funded, Post has two options, either to inform the host government that the unit/individual is ineligible for USG-funded training or to seek additional Department guidance on the case. Reporting and ACES -------------- ¶7. Potential human rights violations by the Nicaraguan military and police must be reported by cable to the Department. Now that ACES (the Department of State-hosted human rights abuses database) is on-line, Post must enter all allegations of human rights abuses by foreign security forces into the system. Post will hold a quarterly country team meeting to ensure that reports are entered or to verify that no allegations have been received during the quarter. If no incidents have occurred in a given quarter, Post will enter a negative report into ACES from the country team for that quarter. Post will use ACES as a tool to organize existing files of past allegations by creating new records for each incident. TRIVELLI