MOROCCO'S EQUITY AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION

C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 000024 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/MAG, DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/03/2011 TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM MO SUBJECT: MOROCCO'S EQUITY AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION COMES TO A CLOSE REF: A. 04 RABAT 02254 ¶B. 05 RABAT 00380 ¶C. 05 RABAT 01365 ¶D. 05 RABAT 01480 ¶E. 05 RABAT 02604 Classified By: Pol/C Timothy Lenderking, Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: The Equity and Reconciliation Commission's (IER) mandate ended November 30, bringing to a close the IER's almost two-year investigation into human rights abuses in Morocco between 1956 and 1999. The IER's final report was submitted to King Mohammed VI on December 1. On December 16, the Palace announced that the entire report would be made available to the public in Arabic, French and English. The entire report is in several volumes said to number hundreds of pages, and it is not yet available; only summaries and press reports are available. Disagreement with the IER report emanate primarily from two non-governmental organizations NGOs the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) and the Truth and Justice Forum (FVJ). Both of these NGOs have criticized the IER's mandate from the outset; they believe the IER should have been able to bring perpetrators of human rights abuses to trial and to have these individuals punished. As well, these NGOs believe the IER is "glossing" over the number of victims. For the most part, however, the IER is viewed positively and may be seen as one of King Mohammed's most significant democratic reforms. The King is expected to make the IER report the centerpiece of a speech to the nation on January 6. End Summary. -------------- The IER's Findings -------------- ¶2. (U) The IER's mandate ended November 30, bringing to a close a process of intensive research and investigation, public hearings, and seminars aiming at identifying and compensating victims of human rights abuses in Morocco between independence and the ascendance to the throne of King Mohammed VI, i.e. 1956-1999. On December 1, the IER submitted its final report to the King. On December 16, the palace announced that the King has "taken note of the nature of the final report of the Equity and Reconciliation Panel (IER) and commanded that it be published and brought to the knowledge of the people," according to the official press agency, MAP. ¶3. (U) The final IER report is in several volumes and will be available in Arabic, French and English once all of the translations are completed, according to official press reports. The report contains the results of the seventeen-member IER's interviews, field investigations, research and examination of records/documents, and public hearings. While 22,000 applications were received, 16,861 of these were complete, i.e., contained enough information, and were assessed. ¶4. (SBU) The US-based International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ),which cooperated closely with the IER, published a summary of the report in mid-December. According to the ICTJ, the report confirmed 9779 cases of human rights abuses ranging from deaths and injuries in detention, extra-judicial killings, forced disappearances; and recommended that 9280 victims receive compensation. The report identified opposition figures to King Hassan II who disappeared in the 1960s, e.g., Medhi Ben Barka and Omar Benjelloun. ¶5. (SBU) The report, according to ICTJ, suggests that the IER's documentation become an archive which is used to continue to resolve cases, for research by academics and be preserved because "reconciliation with the past necessitates facing the past." To guarantee gross human rights violations do not re-occur, the IER reportedly recommended the consolidation of human rights guarantees constitutionally, a national strategy against impunity, and the promotion of a "state of law," requiring reforms in the security apparatus, the judiciary, and in law and the penal system. ¶6. (U) According to press reports, the IER recommended "the primacy of international human rights law over Moroccan law, the separation of powers, the total independence of the judiciary and the presumption of innocence as well as the right to a fair trial." The final report recommended that the GOM ban "forced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, genocide and other crimes against humanity, torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and the prohibition of all forms of incitement to racism, xenophobia, violence and hatred." GOM spokesperson and Minister of Communication Nabil Benabdellah said, "We intend to give a very warm welcome to the different recommendations made in this report. We consider the report to bear witness of the deep desire of his Majesty the King and his government to turn a page in our history." ¶7. (U) MAP reported December 16 that the IER recommended the "eradication of impunity," the independence of the judicial system, and making the criminal law code conform to Morocco's international commitments. The MAP report also stated that the IER recommended separation of powers and a constitutional ban on executive interference in the judicial system. As well, the final report recommended that human rights guarantees be consolidated in the constitution to ensure such violations do not occur again. ¶8. (U) Press reports also stated that per the final report 9280 victims will receive compensation. Of this number, 1,895 will be reintegrated into the civil service and/or their professional situation will be regularized. All victims the IER identified will receive medical coverage. IER recommended socioeconomic and cultural programs in specific regions which suffered from human rights abuses. Of the 592 people reported missing between 1956 and 1999, 322 of them died during riots in 1965, 1981, 1984 and 1990 because of the "disproportionate use of public force." Approximately 173 people who were arbitrarily detained or who "disappeared" during the same period died in legal and illegal detention centers. The burial places for these individuals could not be identified by the IER. The report urged the GOM to investigate 66 other cases of individuals who were forced to disappear. The IER identified the number of deaths which were caused by human rights abuses as 39 in the immediate post-independence period, 109 in the 1970s, 9 in the 1980s and 2 in the 1990s. ¶9. (U) The lessons and recommendations in the IER report will be incorporated into school curricula, and, in the education and training of judges, lawyers, and, prison and security officials, according to the press. -------------- Driss Benzekri: Morocco's Man of the Year -------------- ¶10. (U) On November 30, Driss Benzekri, the president of the IER and, as of July (reftel D),the president of the Consultative Council on Human Rights (CCDH),publicly declared the end of the IER's mandate. (Several Moroccan publications have crowned Benzekri Morocco's "Man of the Year."). He emphasized that the final report contained "recommendations and propositions towards legislative, institutional, and educational reforms meant to guarantee the non-repetition of grave violations of human rights." In this declaration, Benzekri said the IER finalized its decisions concerning compensation and other types of reparations to victims and/or their beneficiaries; will communicate its decisions to the victims by mail; incorporated victims' health needs into its decisions; and, finally, that the IER had a broad, community-based vision of reparations. ¶11. (U) In a December 21 interview in the French-language daily Liberation, Benzekri pointed out that the purpose of the report and the mandate of the IER was to state facts about the time period between 1956 to 1999, not to provide historical analyses about the human rights violations. He reiterated that it was not within the IER's mandate to identify the individuals who committed the human rights abuses. Benzekri did, however, explain that the violations could be attributed to individuals and groups, and were a result of many factors, e.g., circumstances created by the post-independence period, partisan political actions, the government's reaction to circumstances and events, as well as armed conflict with other governments and the Polisario. -------------- Different Views -------------- ¶12. (U) Since its inception, some Moroccan NGOs have criticized the IER because its mandate did not include naming and prosecuting individual perpetrators. With the submission of the final report, the criticisms were reiterated in the press. On December 17, for example, the AMDH contested the number of individuals killed by the government in the 1965 and 1981 riots. ¶13. (U) Following the AMDH statement, the FVJ stated in the press that the IER's total of 100 graves for the 1981 Casablanca riots was ridiculously low. AMDH claimed there were 500 to 1,000 killed. The FVJ claimed there are mass graves of the victims and that these are well-known by the governmental authorities, along with the names of the deceased. The Arabic newspaper, Assabah, published in Casablanca, presented an alternate interpretation, i.e., the identification of the mass graves was the beginning and that the identification prompted individuals to come forward with more information. (Note: Press reports indicate that a total of 663 graves have been identified; some of these, approximately 63 contain Sahrawis victims.) Both the AMDH and the FVJ are demanding the prosecution of the perpetrators of the violations. ¶14. (U) On January 4, the Islamist Party of Justice and Development (PJD) noted in the French daily Aujourd'hui that the IER report did not pay sufficient attention to the immediate period following independence. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶15. (C) While the IER is the first truth commission in the Arab world and should be applauded for this status, it continues to be criticized by those who believe that the lack of prosecutions stemming from the IER's work is a fundamental shortcoming. The history of the IER (reftels) indicates that not all segments of civil society agreed with its mandate from its inception. The focus of the IER was to claim the past and to move Morocco forward by institutionalizing the findings, but essentially to leave Mohammed VI unscathed and untainted. The CCDH is the repository of the archives and now has a separate division to complete the investigative work, fulfill the reparations obligations, and to ensure the incorporation of the IER's recommendations into national strategies. With Benzekri as the president of the CCDH, continuity is assured. The speed with which change occurs, however, is another matter and dependent on different segments of the Moroccan sociopolitical fabric. Benzekri, however, as a former political prisoner, has been shown to be a conscientious, credible leader, capable of balancing disparate opinions; moreover, as in the final IER report, he desires a change in the political framework of Morocco to establish human rights as the major, cross-cutting pillar. The IER report provides a foundation for the building of a new structure, while recognizing the gross abuses of power of the past. ¶16. (C) The real success of the IER will only become clear over time. The public hearings that began a year ago, offering relatives of human rights victims a chance to describe their suffering and vent their anguish, were riveting for the nation, but there were only a few of them and they were not a sustained feature of the IER's work. While the IER conducted extensive research in the Western Sahara, the unrest there over the past six months, as well as the IER's falling behind schedule, prevented any public hearings from taking place in the disputed territory -- something we suppose could come back to haunt the IER if not the GOM. ¶17. (C) In his speech to the nation on January 6, the King will certainly praise the commission for fulfilling its mandate (although it ended six months behind schedule). But he will have to be careful about how much emphasis he places on the IER's work as "closing the chapter" on the past. As FM Benaissa suggested to visiting Congressman Tom Lantos on January 4 (septel),the King wants to turn the page without allowing others to rewrite history. Ultimately the Moroccan people -- and not just NGOs like AMDH and FVJ, which are consistent Palace irritants, or the King -- will have to decide whether the IER has satisfied their thirst for justice. ****************************************** Visit Embassy Rabat's Classified Website; http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/rabat ****************************************** Riley