Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08ALGIERS1087
2008-10-06 15:48:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Algiers
Cable title:  

INTERIOR MINISTRY SNUFFS EBERT CENTER EVENT

Tags:  PGOV PREL KDEM AG 
pdf how-to read a cable
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PP RUEHTRO
DE RUEHAS #1087/01 2801548
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 061548Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY ALGIERS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6458
INFO RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 2881
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 9049
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT 2523
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 7375
RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI
RUEHNK/AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT 6516
RUEHNM/AMEMBASSY NIAMEY 1725
RUEHBP/AMEMBASSY BAMAKO 0708
RUEHCL/AMCONSUL CASABLANCA 3538
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ALGIERS 001087 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/06/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM AG
SUBJECT: INTERIOR MINISTRY SNUFFS EBERT CENTER EVENT

Classified By: DCM Thomas F. Daughton; reasons 1.4 (b),(d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ALGIERS 001087

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/06/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM AG
SUBJECT: INTERIOR MINISTRY SNUFFS EBERT CENTER EVENT

Classified By: DCM Thomas F. Daughton; reasons 1.4 (b),(d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: On the afternoon of October 4, the interior
ministry quietly informed the Friedrich Ebert Center in
Algiers that the political discussion it had organized for
the following morning would not take place and "was not
appreciated." The October 5 event, a debate on the 20th
anniversary of the 1988 riots that led to the birth of
multiparty politics in Algeria, was to have featured the
participation of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human
Rights (LADDH) along with prominent academics and political
figures. Invited personally by President Bouteflika to work
in Algeria during his visit to Germany in 2002, the Ebert
Center has never been granted legal status and has come under
increasing pressure from the government over the last year.
The decision to cancel the October 5 event was made and
delivered to Ebert's country director in the shadows, without
any written notification or explanation provided. Since the
government's near shut-down of the operations of the National
Democratic Institute in 2006, the Ebert Center has been the
most prominent foreign political NGO still active in Algiers.
The Ebert Center's recent experiences makes it even less
clear for Algerian civil society where the bounds of
"acceptable" behavior lie. END SUMMARY.

JOSEF K, YOU ARE UNDER ARREST
--------------


2. (C) Armin Hasemann, country director of the Friedrich
Ebert Center, told us on October 5 that at around 1500 the
previous day, the center received a phone call from the
interior ministry politely summoning Hasemen to report to a
certain address an hour later. The caller gave no name.
Hasemann complied and arrived at the non-descript gate of a
compound affiliated with the interior ministry. A guard
opened the gate and Hasemann was led towards a central
building with a metal detector at its entrance. He was then
instructed to proceed to the fifth floor, to an office he
believed was called "Directorate of Civil Society," though he
confided that he was not certain as everything was in Arabic,
which he does not read well.


3. (C) In the fifth floor office, two polite officials
greeted Hasemann and apologized "for wasting his time" and

"all of the work he had put into his activities." They then
informed him that the October 5 seminar, already heavily
publicized, would not be taking place as "it was not
appreciated." Hasemann asked for reasons, an official
letter, and the contact information for his two
interlocutors. They provided him nothing and were apologetic
but firm, saying their job was simply to deliver the message.
The officials had only the contact information for
Hasemann's predecessor, who left a year ago, and asked him
for a cell phone number "so that they could more easily
contact him in the future." Hasemann told us that the
interior ministry always communicates with the Ebert Center
via telephone or verbal messages, since a letter would
"appear to acknowledge we have some kind of status here that
we have never been granted."

EBERT IN THE SPOTLIGHT
--------------


4. (C) The diplomat who handles the civil society portfolio
at the German embassy in Algiers explained to us on October 5
that since Hasemann took over as head of the Ebert Center in
2007, elements of the Algerian government have "used his
tenure" as an excuse to put pressure on the center and
"suffocate it." Much as the National Democratic Institute
found in late 2006 that it could no longer obtain visas, the
Ebert Center has faced a growing number of "strange
reactions" from local partners over the past year, the
diplomat explained. Algerian organizations "appear to have
been warned" not to cooperate wth the center. Hasemann said
that so far his center has not faced difficulties with
obtaining visas, but he explained that most of Ebert's
programming involves Algerian participants. The center's
goal is simply to offer a space to debate while making sure
"we never take a position on anything," to allow Algerians to
engage in political debate. Our German embassy contact joked
that he was jealous of Hasemann's ministry meeting, "since we
have been trying to meet those people for years" to address
civil society issues.

ALGIERS 00001087 002 OF 002




5. (C) The German diplomat added that Hasemann has been "more
active" but not, in his view, more provocative than his
predecessor. Ebert was the subject of a vigorous debate in
the Algerian press immediately following an economic
conference it hosted on September 27. During the conference,
an Algerian economist cited the National Office of
Statistics' 2007 unemployment figure of 13.8 percent. The
figure, which remains on the ONS website, was markedly higher
than one cited in the press by Sidi Said, the president of
the General Worker's Union (UGTA),Algeria's largest (and
most government-linked) labor union. Said, who was invited
to participate in the Ebert Center event on September 27 but
did not attend, responded by publicly criticizing the center
for interference in Algeria's internal affairs and fostering
debate he labeled "unproductive." Headlines in the days that
followed took sides, Hasemann noted, with many coming down in
defense of Ebert's role as providing a forum and not
responsible for the views of those who participated. "In
this respect," Hasemann shrugged, "perhaps we succeeded in
provoking a larger debate than we had anticipated."

CIVIL SOCIETY SUFFOCATING
--------------


6. (C) In contrast to Hasemann, who said Ebert's policy is
simply to issue a press release with its reaction and refrain
from press interviews, the LADDH blasted the government
publicly at an October 5 press conference that replaced the
planned Ebert Center event. LADDH president Mustapha
Bouchachi and president emeritus Ali Yahia Abdenour denounced
the cancellation of the conference, particularly on the
occasion of the 1988 riots, "an event which marked a turning
point in the fight for freedom." They accused the government
of refusing to allow the organization of peaceful events to
evaluate 20 years of Algeria's democratic experience. Kamel
Daoud, a member of the LADDH executive board, visited us the
afternoon of October 5 and told us he was certain the
authorities knew that their record 20 years later had not
lived up to the 1988 ideals. Daoud said that the LADDH was
fortunate to have legal status, but that civil society as a
whole "was suffocating" because of restrictions on freedom of
association. Initially, Daoud said that the LADDH board
members believed they were the target of the interior
ministry action, but after further discussion they realized
that Ebert was the primary target, with the LADDH as one of
many victims "who just need a forum for discussion."
Abdenour told the press that, in a country of over 2 million
square kilometers, "we cannot even have 50 square meters" to
discuss Algerian issues.

COMMENT: NO FINGERPRINTS
--------------


7. (C) As it has done before with NDI and other
organizations, the interior ministry has been careful not to
leave a paper trail and not even to provide the Ebert Center
any official channel for coordination and follow-up. By
withholding legal status from domestic and foreign NGOs
alike, the ministry is better able to control and influence
their activities. We do not know who actually made the
decision to cancel the October 5 event or why, and neither do
the employees of the Ebert Center. Hasemann said that
without any official clarification, he was "completely
unsure" of what the center could do in the future, and even
whether his children would be able to finish the school year
in Algiers. He said the center intended to continue its
planned series of discussions in the months ahead, absent any
interior ministry instructions to the contrary. The LADDH's
Abdenour noted glumly that the Ebert Center case represented
"a significant regression, the likes of which we cannot find
anywhere else in the region." Algerians, he said, are forced
to meet abroad simply to discuss their own issues.
PEARCE