WESTERN SAHARA: NORDICS PONDER NEXT STEPS

C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 000248

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR NEA/MAG; GENEVA FOR RMA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/02/2009
TAGS: MO PBTS PHUM PREL
SUBJECT: WESTERN SAHARA: NORDICS PONDER NEXT STEPS

REF: A. RABAT 240


B. RABAT 238

C. RABAT 181

D. RABAT 172

E. RABAT 48

Classified By: Pol/C Tim Lenderking for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Swedish and Norwegian Embassy First Secretaries Jonas
Wendel and Lene Richter Strand called on Polcouns February 8
for a read-out of the embassy's late January visit to
Laayoune (Refs A-D),and in turn updated Polcouns on the
latest Nordic thinking on how to respond to what they view as
unacceptable GOM interference in two scuttled visits to the
Western Sahara. Wendel and Richter Strand were slated to be
two of the three members of the Nordic delegation (the other
was Finnish Charge Ingmar Strom) planning to visit the
Western Sahara January 22-24. On January 21, however, MFA
Director for Multilateral Affairs Mohamed Loulichki called
the Swedish Ambassador in Rabat to inform him that the GOM
forbade the delegation from meeting Sahrawi civil society
activists. The delegation viewed this condition by the GOM
as unacceptable and canceled the trip in protest.


2. (C) Polcouns gave the diplomats an overview of the latest
mission visit to Laayoune, January 24-26, noting meetings
with MINURSO, GOM officials, and NGO representatives from
both sides of the political divide. In response to their
questions, Polcouns stressed that the mission had followed
the same procedures in organizing this visit as in the past,
i.e. informing the GOM of the visit, identifying delegation
members, and requesting assistance for official appointments
via diplomatic note, while making other arrangements directly
through embassy channels. When asked about the arrangements
for meeting with Sahrawi activists (Ref B),Polcouns
responded that we had not informed the GOM of the meeting,
nor had any Moroccan official asked for an accounting of our
time in the territory. (Comment: Curiously, despite the
tension on the ground in Laayoune and the tempest over the
aborted Nordic visit, the GOM interfered less in this
particular mission visit than in any in the last several
years. No handler was assigned to shadow emboffs; while
drivers from the Wali's office were assigned to emboffs, they
were dismissed when not needed, and emboffs were able to
travel around town on foot or by taxi, stop at local cafes,
without any evident surveillance or interference. These
activities appeared to generate no concern among the local
officials. Emboffs were also allowed to visit Laayoune
prison, something no mission has been allowed to do as far as
we know. End Comment). The Nordic diplomats took copious
notes during the read-out.

Moroccan Ambassadors Convoked
--------------


3. (C) Polcouns asked the Nordics how their governments
intended to respond to the GOM's unacceptable limitations on
their travel to the Western Sahara. Wendel and Richter
Strand noted that their governments (the MFA's Secretary
General in Sweden, the MFA's Director General in Norway) had
both convoked the Moroccan Ambassadors (a charge d'affaires
in the case of Norway; a new ambassador, also a Sahrawi like
the previous one, has been named but has not yet arrived in
Oslo) to express their disappointment with the GOM. Wendel
added that individual parliamentarians in Sweden had spoken
out against the action. The Nordics believed the Finnish
government had also convoked the Moroccan Ambassador.

Swedish FM to Visit Morocco
--------------


4. (C) Wendel added that Swedish FM Freivalds is scheduled
to visit Morocco on March 27, the first visit by a FM in
about fifteen years. The GOS does not want the aborted
Nordic assessment to mar the FM's visit (and Wendel hoped the
GOM had similar interests),so the GOS was likely to
re-evaluate the situation following the visit and make a call
at that time on the appropriateness of trying for a third
time to send an assessment mission to the Western Sahara.

Possible Action
--------------


5. (C) In the meantime, the Nordics were considering a
separate demarche to the GOM, but also weighing that against
actions the EU is contemplating on the Western Sahara. The
two diplomats said that France and Spain continued to
restrain EU action concerning the Western Sahara, including
watering down texts that would express concern over the human
rights situation. The Nordics' separate demarche would
either protest GOM actions and/or demand clarification on
freedom of movement for visitors to the Western Sahara.
Wendel said EU members were looking at a proposal tabled by
Austria that would ask the Moroccans to comment formally on
reports from human rights NGOs concerning the human rights
situation. The Nordics said their governments did not want
any link made between the Austrian proposal and their own
possible demarche. He added that a phone call from Swedish
Deputy FM to the GOM, prior to the FM visit, was under
consideration.


6. (C) Wendel added as an aside that the Islamist Party of
Justice and Development had contacted several European
governments, including Sweden, about the possibility of
participating in a conference on autonomy to take place in
Morocco, organized by the PJD, perhaps in March (Ref E).
Wendel understood the Germans had also been solicited for the
conference, but had told the PJD that autonomy options from
Europe could include suggestions that the powers of the
monarch would need to be limited, and this notion appeared to
ruffle the PJD.


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Riley