WESTERN SAHARA: A NEW BREED OF SAHARACRAT?

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RABAT 001871

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/MAG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/19/2017
TAGS: PREL MOPS KPKO UNSC MO PHUM
SUBJECT: WESTERN SAHARA: A NEW BREED OF SAHARACRAT?

Classified By: Polcouns Craig Karp for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

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Summary:
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1. (C) The Security Wali (territorial police commissioner),
Bouchaib Rmili along with the Wali (governor) of Laayoune,
Boujdor and Sakia al-Hamra, who arrived in Laayoune over a
year ago, and the new director of the Laayoune Prison, who
arrived eight months ago, appear to represent a type of more
enlightened problem-solver the Rabat authorities are sending
to Sahara. If their rhetoric is to be believed, and
independent sources confirm some of their statements,
security and prison personnel are modifying their behavior
and acting in a more professional manner. All three men also
seem to have instituted programs to address persistent human
rights problems. End Summary.

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Community Policing: From Maine to Laayoune
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2. (C) The Security Wali, Bouchaib Rmili, (territorial
police commissioner) has a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice and
entered the Ministry of Interior at the unusually high rank
of Commissioner in 1989. He served in several high profile
postings, including as Casablanca police chief, before and
after the 2003 bombings. During his tenure in Casablanca, he
visited the United States on a USG program to study police
procedures. In a late September meeting in his new office,
he described to emboffs the community policing program he is
piloting in Laayoune - a first for Morocco. It is modeled
after those he saw in Maine, Washington DC and Virginia. He
has also instituted in-service training for his officers in
Laayoune and at the Moroccan central police academy in
Kenitra focused on customer service and human rights. This
step was corroborated by a United Nations Mission for the
Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) contact who had chance
discussion with a beat cop who mentioned the training. The
MINURSO contact also mentioned that members of a riot police
unit, disbanded in 2006 due to widespread abuses, received
retraining before being sent to other commands. This was an
apparent recognition by the Government of Morocco (GOM) that
the unit and its members had used excessive force and
counter-productive policing methods.

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They Threw First
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3. (C) Bouchaib confirmed that the police sometimes conduct
operations in schools, (a sore point with local human rights
activists) but maintained that his officers only entered
classrooms at the request of school officials. He added that
he felt obligated to maintain a police presence outside
schools because groups of students often resorted to rock
throwing and other disruptive activity, an allegation we have
also heard from unionist human rights activists. Bouchaib
added that activists hurt their own credibility by
exaggerating events and politicizing incidents as mundane
traffic accidents that require police involvement, claiming
the arrested individuals are political prisoners. (Comment:
While such incidents may occur, they are probably over-cited
by officials to devalue legitimate complaints. On December
14, well-known Sahrawi human rights activist Brahim El Ansari
was arrested during a traffic stop and detained for two days.
End Comment.)

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Four, Maybe Five, Types of Separatists
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4. (C) In Bouchaib's view, there are four types of
separatists in Sahara:

a) True believers, who receive instructions from the
POLISARIO and manage and instigate activities in the region;

b) Recruits, who are indoctrinated by the believers and used
as foot soldiers;

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c) Opportunists, who hide behind the mantle of separatism
when caught committing crime; and

d) Dreamers, who have not fared well under the current system
and hope for a better life under the POLISARIO.

e) Bouchaib conceded that there might be a fifth category of
people who become separatists due to mistreatment by the
Moroccan authorities.

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A Philosophy of Proximity
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5. (C) Bouchaib admitted that security forces have made, and
continue to make, errors in treatment of prisoners and
detainees, but insisted that they are making progress. He
has instituted a new administrative policy to deal with
police abuse complaints, and is working to improve
communications with the population, including those opposed
to GOM policies in Western Sahara. Bouchaib also said that
he is making domestic violence a police priority in Western
Sahara. He is forcing his officers out of cars and onto foot
patrols to increase interaction with the population. What he
termed his Philosophy of Proximity is guided by three
principles; "be close to the people, respond quickly to
incidents, comport well." He closed saying that "we are
obligated to try new ideas to build a new Morocco."

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Prison Progress As Well
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6. (C) The new director of prisons, Abdelilah Zanfouri, who
also served in high profile institutions in Morocco proper,
has a degree in hotel management and appears to have brought
a common sense approach to resolving long standing prisoner
complaints. In response to hunger strikers' demands for
better food and family visitation conditions, Zanfouri said
he has improved rations and nutrition, and has instituted a
furlough program built around a good behavior. (Comment:
This and some other improvements were confirmed by local
prison activists and an ICRC representative during a
subsequent November visit to Laayoune. End Comment.) He did
not accede to prisoners' demands that up to thirty family
members at a time be allowed entry per prisoner. Zanfouri
welcomed the idea of a visit by emboffs to his facility, but
noted that the decision rested with higher authorities.

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Comment:
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7. (C) Along with territorial Governor M'hammed Dryef, a
highly experienced official dispatched last year to improve
the tone in the territory, these officials have put a kinder
and more open face on the Moroccan administration. It is too
soon to tell whether the changes they have effected are truly
institutional. Despite an acknowledgment of this new
approach by Sahrawi citizens, and even by pro-POLISARIO
separatist activists, the Moroccan authorities are still seen
by many native Sahrawis (now an apparent minority) as
occupiers. End Comment.


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Jackson