GOVERNMENT BLASTS INTERNATIONAL NGOS, DEFENDS

C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 001773 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/10/2017 TAGS: PGOV PHUM AG SUBJECT: GOVERNMENT BLASTS INTERNATIONAL NGOS, DEFENDS BOUTEFLIKA'S NATIONAL RECONCILIATION PROGRAM Classified By: Ambassador Robert Ford, reason 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (U) The Algerian government used the occasion of World Human Rights Day on December 10 to justify President Bouteflika's National Reconciliation program while slamming international NGOs and domestic opponents for hiding behind victims of government abuses to launch political attacks against the government now. At a conference called by the president of the National Human Rights Promotion Council, Farouq Ksentini, the Presidency's Counter-Terrorism advisor Kemal Rezag-Bara said the reconciliation program aimed at restoring peace in Algeria, and as such it was consistent with the introduction to the international human rights declaration. Rezag-Bara stated that the Algerian state was fighting extremists who were using the 1991 halt to the election process as an excuse to impose by force radical principles on the society. Some international NGOs, he observed, lacked the objectivity to distinguish extremists trying to destroy a state and those trying to preserve it. Rezag-Bara asserted that there was no need before or now to establish reconciliation committees as seen in Morocco or South Africa or in Latin America. These committees had not, he claimed, established conditions for durable national reconciliation. Algeria had, he stated, studied individual countries' cases carefully and had learned enough from them. ¶2. (U) Minister of Social Solidarity Ould Abbes also spoke against establishing any kind of national reconciliation committee, since Bouteflika had drawn up the national reconciliation program after what he called an intense dialogue between the government and the Algerian people. He slammed (unspecified) international NGOs, who opposed the Algerian government on what he called political grounds, for pushing the idea in tandem with Algeria's political opposition. These NGOs and political opponents were exploiting the families of those who disappeared in police custody for political ends only. Ould Abbes asserted that the government had already spent 7 billion dinars (roughly USD 100 million) compensating families who had filed claims against the government, and it would spend more. Ould Abbes defended the government's policy of providing amnesty both to members of armed groups who had fought the government and to members of government security forces guilty of human rights abuses. It would have been impossible to pull Algerian society out of a long conflict without such a measure, he concluded. ¶3. (C) Comment: The vigorous defense of the national reconciliation program was somewhat peculiar given the occasion, and we have not seen any public attacks on the program of late. Certainly Bouteflika views it as his personal achievement and he too defends it constantly. Some of our contacts think Bouteflika and his allies are defending the program against hardliners in the security services who want to stop giving amnesty to members of armed groups. NGOs like Freedom House have tried to generate some public support for a kind of transitional justice and reconciliation committee process but without making a dent in the government's stance and without generating much public pressure either. Instead, many of our contacts say that the national reconciliation process was fine for the past several years, but now Bouteflika should start figuring out how to deal with the difficult economic circumstances that ordinary Algerians face. FORD