NOT-SO-FREE EXPRESSION IN OMAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MUSCAT 000443 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR NEA/ARP NFRANCESCHI, NEA/PPD AFERNANDEZ, DBENZE DUBAI PLEASE PASS TO MPELLETIER E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/06/2017 TAGS: OIIP KPAO KMDR EINT PHUM MU SUBJECT: NOT-SO-FREE EXPRESSION IN OMAN REF: A. MUSCAT 357 ¶B. 06 MUSCAT 1627 ¶C. 06 MUSCAT 1684 Classified By: Ambassador Gary A. Grappo, reasons 1.4 b and d ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: In the wake of March's mixed verdict in the trial of leaders of Oman's popular Al-Sablah discussion forum (Ref A),post has been gathering impressions on the state of free expression in the Sultanate. Two recent meetings, the first with Al-Sablah's founder and the second with the father of an activist who recently appeared on Al-Hurra TV, provide personal insights both into how Omanis seeking to loosen the country's restricted climate for dissent deal with official pressure and how government attitudes closely mirror traditional concerns with consensus and the importance of appearances. Both show the lengths to which Omanis believe their government will go in order to maintain those appearances. The first meeting confirmed that Al-Sablah's closure was precipitated by uncensored discussion implying misconduct and/or incompetence by high-ranking officials, as well as continuing pressure even on those acquitted in the Al-Sablah trial. The second indicated that rumors of ongoing harrassment even after the activist voluntarily expatriated himself have some validity. That both Omanis preferred meeting with an Embassy LES in lieu of an American officer indicates the caution they feel is necessary. END SUMMARY. -------------- THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL...AND UNACCEPTABLE -------------- ¶2. (C) In a late-April meeting with a senior Omani-national embassy employee, Al-Sablah founder Said Al-Rashdi (strictly protect) discussed the circumstances that led to the crackdown on his site, his reaction to the trial in which he was acquitted, and his thoughts on what next steps he may take. Al-Rashdi clarified what post had suspected: that the precipitating factor in the closure was the presence of content that went beyond critical discussion of local issues to discussion of individuals and their perceived role in those issues. Al-Rashdi blamed two specific threads. The first implicated a regional governor in the mismanagement of water resources in his area (and ridiculed him for blandly optimistic public pronouncements that clearly contradicted the situation on the ground). The second was uncomplimentary regarding the role of a senior official of state telecom company Omantel in the firm's failure to deliver on promises of better and more readily available Internet service (over which it currently holds a monopoly). The discussion also implied that the resulting technological backwardness reflected badly on Oman in comparison to its neighbors and was a missed investment opportunity. When the offending material was not (as was generally the case on Al-Sablah) promptly deleted by moderators, the affected governor apparently referred the matter to the Public Prosecutor, while the Omantel official went directly to contacts in the security service. ¶3. (C) This one-two punch proved fatal for Al-Sablah. As reported in Ref B, the site was closed and an inquiry initiated. The resulting trial acquitted Al-Rashdi, but left site moderators with fines and in one case a brief jail sentence. While Al-Rashdi's comments on his own experience echoed those he provided to the local press - that the entire process was fair and "transparent" - he clarified how sentencing was handled for his colleagues. The jail sentence went to a moderator who had actively posted in the Omantel discussion under a directly identifiable name, while, in regard to the governor's case, a moderator who contributed did so anonymously and indirectly, by sending content abroad to be posted under a less clear alias. As a result, he was only fined. The sentences showed, Al-Rashdi said, that official surveillance went beyond the site itself to moderators' off-site communications. ¶4. (C) Al-Rashdi's experiences during the investigation also showed how little some in the Omani bureaucracy understand new technology. Some who questioned him seemed to think that discussion fora operated on the business model of a traditional publication, asking how much he paid "his" administrators and what academic or professional qualifications were required of moderators and posters. They were surprised that all involved were volunteers who freely provided content of their own creation and that such content was more akin to a discussion among friends than to the contents of a print periodical. The way forward for Al-Sablah is similarly shaped by local inexperience. Al-Rashdi has been told he may reopen the site, but that it would be incumbent on him to provide authorities with MUSCAT 00000443 002 OF 003 regional and international examples of applicable laws and regulations over such sites, as well as to guarantee that there is no repeat of such personal attacks or even commentary on individuals on the resurrected site. While he is considering his options (including draconian measures such as having participants sign off on a detailed "terms of service" agreement with every posting),Al-Rashdi said that the whole experience has had too deep an effect on his personal and professional life for him to want to rush back into the online fray. -------------- EVER HAD THE FEELING YOU WERE BEING WATCHED? -------------- ¶5. (C) Also in late April, a senior Omani-national employee of the Embassy met with the father of Abdullah Al-Riyami (strictly protect),an activist now living abroad who recently appeared on Al-Hurra TV's "Eye on Democracy" to discuss his work with the Arab Human Rights Association and prospects for democracy in the region. Local sensitivities seem to have been especially ruffled by two things: that, during the broadcast, Al-Riyami discussed "dictatorship" in a way that, indirectly, could be seen to include Oman's own leadership, and that he wore Western clothes in lieu of Omani traditional dress. Muscat's rumor mill has been bruiting about a story that in the wake of the appearance, Al-Riyami's laptop had been stolen under mysterious circumstances. Al-Riyami's father, a longtime family friend of our staffer, provided detail on that incident as well as on how the family copes with having such a controversial relative. ¶6. (C) The father confirmed that while in Dubai recently in connection with his Al-Hurra appearance, Al-Riyami was robbed while exiting a taxi. In what he characterized as a "well-organized and not coincidental" theft, his son's bag, containing both a laptop and documents, was snatched, with the thieves disappearing quickly into a car before the victim could react or note its licence. Al-Riyami moved to Morocco (his wife's country of origin) after being detained in Oman in November 2006. During the two weeks of investigation that followed his arrest, Al-Riyami was questioned in regard to his activism and pressured to sign a document agreeing not to write or comment on "sensitive topics." He refused and departed Oman upon his release. His father said that contact with his son is difficult, as he presumes that his own telephones, landlines and mobile, are monitored, and that as a result he relies on frequently changing mobile simcards. In addition, the father indicated his belief that he and other family members are subject to physical surveillance. Even so, the family remains resolute in supporting Al-Riyami, a reflection of a longtime commitment to freedom of speech and civil rights in the Sultanate. Both father and son have been involved in such work as early as the late seventies and early eighties, when they were part of a group who published a quickly suppressed private magazine of cultural and social commentary. -------------- COMMENT: KEEPING UP APPEARANCES -------------- ¶7. (C) Both interlocutors remain remarkably sanguine under difficult circumstances. Both find themselves in situations that dramatize Oman's conflicting approach to dealing with dissent and "sensitive topics." The treatment meted out to Al-Rashdi and his colleagues shows how much value Omani society places on the appearance of consensus and the perceived need to avoid pointing fingers at individuals (and, by extension, their tribe). It is characteristic not only that Al-Rashdi would be expected, should he choose to continue as a webmaster, to guarantee anodyne content on his site, but to provide via international examples the framework in which he would do so. In a similar vein, his Al-Sablah colleague who was jailed in the end served only a few days of his sentence, as is often typical of such cases in Oman; the example had been made, and, presumably, the lesson learned. The emphasis, in Al-Riyami's case, that investigators put on his "voluntarily" agreeing to refrain from future troublemaking, demonstrates the Omani belief that those involved can be persuaded to see the error of their ways. The heavy-handedness that has followed his refusal equally shows that even in moderate Oman, such stubborness has a price. ¶8. (C) COMMENT CONTINUED: Related conversations and observation in recent weeks have further illuminated the situation. Sources reliably report that there was considerable division within the bureaucracy regarding the closure of Al-Sablah, with the office of the Public MUSCAT 00000443 003 OF 003 Prosecutor feeling obliged to respond to official pressure even as elements of the police and security services were reluctant to lose one of the few reliable gauges of local popular opinion. Willingness to have Al-Rashdi resume his activities, in however restricted a fashion, and limited official interference with the (considerably more cautious) Al-Sablah alternatives that have sprung up (Ref C) may show ongoing interest in having access to such expression. It is likely no coincidence, as well, that the local private print media have responded since the Al-Sablah verdict with content that, while slightly acerbic in discussing local institutions and practices, more than ever avoids individuals and personalities. Omanis are justly proud of the social stability and the cohesiveness of the Sultanate's national identity developed over the past three decades. The narrow climate for public expression, however, is one less-positive byproduct. The treatment meted out, in different ways, to Al-Rashdi and Al-Riyami, seems calculated to ensure that few will feel inclined to follow their lead. END COMMENT. GRAPPO