Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07RABAT1728
2007-11-09 18:26:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Rabat
Cable title:  

WESTERN SAHARA/REFUGEES MOROCCO DROPS UNHCR CBM

Tags:  PREF PBTS UNHCR WI AG PREL PGOV MO 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0003
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHRB #1728/01 3131826
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 091826Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY RABAT
TO RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS IMMEDIATE 4584
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN IMMEDIATE 0664
RUEHCP/AMEMBASSY COPENHAGEN IMMEDIATE 0309
RUEHLI/AMEMBASSY LISBON IMMEDIATE 1209
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON IMMEDIATE 3445
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID IMMEDIATE 5841
RUEHNK/AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT IMMEDIATE 3603
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS IMMEDIATE 4837
RUEHSM/AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM IMMEDIATE 0219
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA IMMEDIATE 1050
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7740
INFO RUEHCL/AMCONSUL CASABLANCA PRIORITY 3670
C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 001728 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR NEA/MAG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/17/2016
TAGS: PREF PBTS UNHCR WI AG PREL PGOV MO
SUBJECT: WESTERN SAHARA/REFUGEES MOROCCO DROPS UNHCR CBM
SEMINAR


Classified By: Classified by Charge d'Affairs Robert P. Jackson for rea
sons 1.4 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 001728

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR NEA/MAG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/17/2016
TAGS: PREF PBTS UNHCR WI AG PREL PGOV MO
SUBJECT: WESTERN SAHARA/REFUGEES MOROCCO DROPS UNHCR CBM
SEMINAR


Classified By: Classified by Charge d'Affairs Robert P. Jackson for rea
sons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: Morocco has pulled out of next week's
planned UNHCR Confidence-Building seminar. Charge, along
with some dozen other COM's, was called in November 9 by MFA
Secretary-General Hilale, who said Morocco's decision was

SIPDIS
based on its belief the seminar, and CBM's in general had
become politicized by the POLISARIO. Morocco still supports
and wants to continue and expand family exchanges. and
telephone calls, UNHCR is disappointed by the last-minute
Moroccan decision, but not very surprised, as Morocco had so
far declined to submit its participant list. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) Foreign Ministry chief diplomat Secretary-General Omar
Hilale called in a baker's dozen Chiefs of Mission to convey
Morocco's decision to pull out of the UNHCR-organized
Confidence Building seminar planned for next week (Nov 12-14)
in Madeira, Portugal. Charge attended along with Ambassadors
or deputies from the P-5 countries, significant donors, and
Portugal, both as EU president and as the host of the planned
conference. Morocco had informed HCR last week in Geneva.


3. (C) Hilale said the GOM decision was based on POLISARIO
politicizing the Seminar. It had vetoed Moroccan
participants. He said that POLISARIO had been aggressive,
insulting impertinent and irresponsible toward Morocco, also
criticizing their attitude in the Manhasset negotiations.


4. (C) Hilale underscored Morocco's continuing support for
the humanitarian CBM's, particularly the exchange visits and
telephone calls, which he wanted to continue, and at the end
he thanked donors for contributing. He charged that
POLSIARIO had politicized them. He noted the great demand
for for the visits; 25,000 Sahrawis had signed up, and the
current rate of 20 people on biweekly flights will not make
much dent in this. UNHCR has also politicized the process,

accepting that the POLISARIO would determine who could go,
allowing the POLISARIO to keep some family members at home as
"hostages." He also asserted that non-POLISARIO tribes and
camps had not been permitted to participate. The systematic
politicizing of the CBM's could even affect the upcoming
negotiations. He claimed that the POLISARIO wanted CBM's as
part of the political negotiations, but Morocco prefers CBM's
to remain in the humanitarian realm, with the talks focused
on the political solution.


5. (C) In answer to a question about potential land routes
for the refugee exchanges, Hilale said Morocco had offered up
two routes but that Algeria had not agreed, citing mine
danger, and counter-proposed a route which ran through
"liberated" territory. This convoluted route was not
acceptable to the GOM.


6. (C) UNHCR Laayoune confirmed that the High Commissioner
himself had received a Moroccan delegation bearing the
cancellation. He said they had never received any nominees
from Morocco, although there was some reports that the
POLISARIO had commented on a list of Saharan names UNHCR had
not obtained. Neither UNHCR nor embassy has been able to
find this reference. UNHCR had previously indicated to us
that they believed the GOM claim that the POLISARIO was
holding hostages, was a "canard," maintaining that whole
families have sometimes visited and HCR itself limited the
size of some family contingents in order to spread the
benefits of the program more widely. We had earlier heard
from them that High Representative Gutierres had personally
gone to bat with his former colleagues in Lisbon to gain
their sponsorship of the meeting.


7. (C) Comment: Sahrawi families can be large, so intended
or not it would be likely that some relatives would not have
been able to travel under any circumstances. This is the
first time we have heard of the exclusion of non-POLISARIO
tribes and we have never previously heard of the existence of
non-POLISARIO camps. The seminar was to treat the
potentially sensitive subject of the Sahrawi Hassaniyah
dialect of Arabic--Spoken in Southern Morocco, Mauritania,
and western Algeria as well as Western Sahara. This last

minute move when the GOM had accepted the conference in
principle, also could be a pre-emptive strike by the GOM at
van Walsum's efforts to put expanded, political CBM's on the
agenda for the next round of talks. Both parties had balked
at this last time prompting the UN to make a more neutral
presentation on governance. It could also feeding into
Morocco's strategy of postponing the next session of talks
until after the December POLISARIO meeting.


*****************************************
Visit Embassy Rabat's Classified Website;
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/rabat
*****************************************

Jackson