FAMILIES OF ALGIRIA'S DISAPPEARED NOT YET RECONCILED

C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 000171 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/07/2027 TAGS: PGOV PHUM AG SUBJECT: FAMILIES OF ALGIRIA'S DISAPPEARED NOT YET RECONCILED Classified By: Ambassador Robert Ford. Reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (C) In an animated January 27 meeting, members of the NGO community representing families of the disappeared and victims of terrorism spoke freely with the Ambassador about President Bouteflika's national reconciliation process and Algeria's need for greater political space. Attendees from Djazairouna, Somoud, SOS Disparus, the National Association of the Families of the Disappeared, and the National Organization of the Victims of Terrorism lauded national reconciliation in principle. While acknowledging it is an ongoing process, they complained that its implementation had been disappointing. SOS Disparus and the National Association of the Families of the Disappeared highlighted that the security services and the military escaped punishment since there was no recognition of responsibility on their part. By contrast, Djazairouna and Somoud complained that terrorist killers had never had to acknowledge that they had committed crimes against innocent Algerians. ¶2. (C) All present supported the idea of national reconciliation, but some perceived a lack of truth and justice in the Algerian process. Ali Merabet of Somoud, an NGO that advocates for victims of terrorism, criticized the national reconciliation process as providing neither truth about what occurred in Algeria during the 1990s nor real reconciliation, since the victims were dead. He claimed that families of victims who never received the remains of their loved ones were insulted by the government's requirement that they obtain death certificates in order to be financially compensated for their lost family members. He said that families would not have closure without receiving the victims' bodies. Others maintained that implementation of national reconciliation had been uneven and lamented that they had not yet reached closure on their own family members' disappearances. Several noted that, unlike the truth and reconciliation process in South Africa, Algerian families had not received apologies for their loss. ¶3. (C) Zohra Flici of the National Organization of the Victims of Terrorism defended the national reconciliation process strongly as something endorsed and adopted by the Algerian people through a consultative voting process. Soumoud's Merabet countered that national reconciliation was a sham, while others added that it had been imposed by powerful interests. As evidence that the Algerian people had not healed, one activist noted, parents of the disappeared periodically gather in protest in front of the office of Farouk Ksentini, head of the Algerian Consultative Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and architect of the national reconciliation process. Flici acknowledged that she might be tempted to kill the killer of her loved ones if she knew the identity of the killer. The Ambassador stressed that the U.S. supported the concept of national reconciliation but believed that its implementation was best left to Algerians. ¶4. (C) COMMENT: The purpose of the meeting was to permit the Ambassador to meet with these NGOs in a setting that the government would not attempt to block. (In November, the GOA banned the Ambassador from visiting Somoud's offices south of Algiers.) The discussion frequently devolved into a shouting match between Flici and others in attendance. At the heart of the dispute was whether President Bouteflika's national reconciliation process, approved by a large margin in a November 2005 referendum, brought legitimate closure for the families who either lost loved ones to Islamist terrorists or whose loved ones died at the hands of the security services. With the exception of Flici and a few others, activists for those who died in government detention reject impunity for members of the military and security services, even if most Algerians have voted to put this aspect of the "national tragedy" (as Algerians refer to the violence of the 1990s) behind them. The government, meanwhile, is exceptionally sensitive to criticism of its national reconciliation policy, as demonstrated by its blocking the Ambassador's visit to Somoud. On February 7 the government blocked these organizations from holding a conference that had aimed at developing an action plan to lobby for changes to the reconciliation process (septel). FORD