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.

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The IER's Findings
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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.

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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.

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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.

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Comment
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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.
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Riley