ICRC SEES PROGRESS WITH GOM ON HUMANITARIAN ISSUES

C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 000970

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR NEA/MAG, IO, DRL; GENEVA FOR RMA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/02/2009
TAGS: MO PBTS PHUM PREL
SUBJECT: ICRC SEES PROGRESS WITH GOM ON HUMANITARIAN ISSUES

REF: RABAT 448

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


1. (SBU) Over lunch May 18, ICRC Regional Delegate Bernard
Pfefferle told Polcouns the ICRC was generally pleased with
progress on the humanitarian issues it is working with the
GOM, and especially with progress on resolving the issue of
the disappeared between Morocco and the Polisario Front.

Anniversary of the Red Cross
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2. (SBU) Visiting Morocco from Tunis to attend the
anniversary of the Red Cross societies in Marrakech May 16,
Pfefferle said he was pleased that the King's speech marking
the occasion, which was read by Royal Advisor Zoulika Nasri,
made three references to the ICRC's involvement in the
release of Moroccan POWs, and also mentioned the ICRC
president. This was somewhat of a breakthrough, Pfefferle
said, since the GOM has tended to see the ICRC as tilting
toward Algeria. The only blemish on the anniversary
occasion, he said, was that the Algerians were the only Red
Cross/Crescent society from the Middle East and North Africa
not to attend the event. "It shows the extent of the wall
between Morocco and Algeria," he said, an observation
Polcouns did not refute.

Prison Access
--------------


3. (SBU) Pfefferle was also pleased at progress between ICRC
and the GOM on the issue of prison access. In a recent
meeting in Geneva, MOJ Bouzoubaa had given ICRC President
Kellenberger verbal assurances of GOM approval for a prison
agreement between the GOM and ICRC. Pfefferle had shared a
draft MOU with the GOM on his last visit to Morocco in March
(reftel),which was basically a carbon copy of agreements the
ICRC had with Tunisia and Mauritania. The agreement would
give ICRC private access to any prisoner in Morocco,
regardless of offense or sentence, regardless of whether the
facility was a prison or a detention center, and regardless
of which government entity or security service administered
the facility. Pfefferle said ICRC would focus on those
imprisoned on security or terrorism charges. As the
agreement was written to apply to any facility in Morocco,
Pfefferle said the ICRC took that to include the Western
Sahara. Pfefferle was uncertain when the agreement would
actually be signed, but he was satisfied that the initiative
was on the right track.

Western Sahara: Resolving the Disappeared
--------------


4. (C) Pfefferle said he had visited Tindouf and Rabbouni
three weeks ago to make further progress on the disappeared
from the Western Sahara conflict. Abdulaziz had not been
available, but Pfefferle had met with several Polisario
"ministers." The ministers agreed with the ICRC's desire to
move forward more vigorously on the project and were amenable
to meetings with the Moroccans, which the ICRC would chair.
Pfefferle said he had just concluded a meeting with MFA
Director of UN Affairs Nasser Bourita in Rabat, who had said
the GOM also agreed in principle to sit around a table and
review cases with the Polisario. Pfefferle said he wanted
both sides to form a team or designate an individual who had
the authority to declare that, based on the information
presented, cases could be closed and the family members
informed of their status. Pfefferle told Bourita informally
that former political prisoner and head of the now defunct
Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER) was the kind of
person the Moroccans might consider as their representative.
Bourita countered that this responsibility was more likely to
fall to someone from the Royal Council of Saharan Affairs
(CORCAS),but he told Pfefferle he was just talking off the
top of his head. Pfefferle told Polcouns the ICRC had no
particular stake in who staffed the delegations from either
side, as long as they had the authority to make decisions.
Pfefferle added that another positive sign of Moroccan
cooperation was that the IER had given ICRC full access to
its casefiles concerning the disappeared in the Sahara, and
ICRC had a staffer in Rabat this week starting to pore over
them. Pfefferle said the Polisario also had a lot of
information they had not yet shared; in Rabbouni he had
visited a Polisario museum that had many documents from
Moroccan soldiers on display in glass cases, but it appeared
the Polisario had not kept written records on who these
individuals were, where their bodies were, or how the
documents had come into their possession. If properly
collated, such data could prove very useful to the ICRC.

Comment
--------------


5. (C) The ICRC's project with the disappeared provides a
potentially fruitful area of cooperation between Morocco and
the Polisario, one in which it seems both sides have a stake
in making progress. It will be a breakthrough if the ICRC
can bring the two sides together, a development which could
provide a foundation or momentum for the broader engagement
between the two sides that we are seeking.







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Riley