Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08ALGIERS1269
2008-12-06 07:02:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Algiers
Cable title:  

WESTERN SAHARA: SAHRAWI YOUTH FRUSTRATION MOUNTS

Tags:  PREF PREL PBTS WI AG 
pdf how-to read a cable
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PP RUEHTRO
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ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 060702Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY ALGIERS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6697
INFO RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT PRIORITY 2589
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 7449
RUEHBP/AMEMBASSY BAMAKO PRIORITY 0768
RUEHNK/AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT PRIORITY 6567
RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI PRIORITY
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 2939
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID PRIORITY 9108
RUEHNM/AMEMBASSY NIAMEY PRIORITY 1777
RUEHCL/AMCONSUL CASABLANCA PRIORITY 3583
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0522
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ALGIERS 001269 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/05/2028
TAGS: PREF PREL PBTS WI AG
SUBJECT: WESTERN SAHARA: SAHRAWI YOUTH FRUSTRATION MOUNTS
AS LEADERS PUSH FOR NEXT ROUND OF TALKS

REF: ALGIERS 693

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 03 ALGIERS 001269

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/05/2028
TAGS: PREF PREL PBTS WI AG
SUBJECT: WESTERN SAHARA: SAHRAWI YOUTH FRUSTRATION MOUNTS
AS LEADERS PUSH FOR NEXT ROUND OF TALKS

REF: ALGIERS 693

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


1. (C) SUMMARY: Sahrawi youth are increasingly frustrated
and speak of a return to armed conflict with Morocco, but
there is no indication that they are preparing to do so, or
that they are indeed capable. During a November 15 visit by
poloff and visiting NEA/MAG Algeria desk officer to a Sahrawi
refugee camp near Tindouf, Polisario leaders said that the
lack of progress in status negotiations on Western Sahara was
the driving force behind the anger. Although the Polisario
is shouldering increased criticism from Sahrawi youth, a
MINURSO official assessed that there was little evidence of
action behind the youth's rhetoric and that Polisario leaders
were capable of reining in potential fringe elements.
Polisario officials hoped the next round of Manhasset talks
would begin soon and blamed Morocco for delaying the
announcement of a new special envoy. World Food Program
officials thanked us for the USD 6.8 million U.S. food
contribution, which should begin arriving in January and will
secure the pipeline through May 2009. UNHCR's Confidence
Building Measures (CBM) team said no progress has been made
on a possible land route for CBM family visits. On security
matters, interlocutors asserted that the vast border zone
near the camps was not a haven for arms or drug smuggling.
Polisario officials also asserted that their community was
not threatened by ideological or religious extremism. END
SUMMARY.


2. (U) From a hilltop overlooking the Smara refugee camp 70
kilometers southeast of Tindouf, a sprawling landscape of
tents and mud-brick structures peppered with water storage
bins, solar panels and the occasional radio antenna and
cell-phone tower stretches across the desert. The Smara camp
is home to approximately 42,000 Sahrawi refugees and a
rudimentary infrastructure of schools, health clinics and
social services that constitutes the Polisario's
administrative model for governing daily life in each of the
five Sahrawi camps. While walking through the camp at noon
during a November 15 visit, we observed Sahrawi refugees,

mostly women and children, going about their daily routines.
In a meeting with camp administrators, Khatri Adduh, Smara's
governor, rattled off a list of the day-to-day problems he is
called on to resolve. Adduh, in a refrain that we heard in
each meeting with Polisario representatives, underscored his
concern about opportunities for Sahrawi youth, the need to
reanimate the UN process on Western Sahara and what he
perceived as Morocco's unhelpful role in reaching a solution.

THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS
--------------


3. (C) Polisario leaders told us that Sahrawi youth have
become increasingly frustrated with the lack of progress in
status negotiations and with the bleak prospects for jobs or
any future beyond the camps. Polisario Prime Minister
Abdulkhader Taleb Omar told us that the discontent among
youth has given way to increased criticism of the Polisario's
commitment to negotiations amidst calls by a growing faction
of youth to abandon the talks and return to the fight.
Governor Adduh said he also sees many youth frustrated by the
lack of progress and spends much of his time trying to keep
them engaged in positive activities. Many children and young
adults benefit from exchange visits to Europe during the
summer, but Adduh admitted that the real need is to find
constructive activities for youth in the camps themselves.
Khatri and Omar said their overall message to youth focuses
on the realities of the armed conflict with Morocco, which
the camp's young people are not old enough to remember, and
the importance of continuing the UN dialogue.


4. (C) American missionaries representing Christ the Rock
Church said they have also witnessed rising levels of
frustration among camp youth. The group's leader told us
during an October 21 meeting in Algiers that many Sahrawi
youth say they are ready to resume fighting if the UN process
fails to produce results, but she saw no evidence of
preparation for such action. In Smara, one American
missionary explained that the youth population in the camps
was growing and noticed more people wandering the Smara camp
than in previous visits. The Laayoune camp, another

ALGIERS 00001269 002 OF 003


missionary commented, was also growing and would soon eclipse
the number of inhabitants in Smara. Asked why the numbers in
Laayoune seemed to be increasing, Christ the Rock's leader
said some youth from the Moroccan side of the berm had
crossed through Mauritania to the camp, but she said a steady
birth rate was the real growth engine.


5. (C) MINURSO Liaison Office Head Bakary Dabo had a similar
take on Sahrawi youth frustration. Dabo observed the most
recent Polisario party congress in December 2007 during which
a rowdy faction of young delegates made a scene by openly
criticizing the Polisario's stance on negotiations. Although
the group voiced slogans calling for a return to the fight,
Dabo saw no evidence of action behind the rhetoric and
assessed that the Polisario was capable of reining in such
fringe elements if needed. Dabo recalled another incident
during the past year in which the Polisario Youth and Sports
Minister led a busload of young Sahrawi near the buffer zone,
instructing them to hurl stones at the berm. The event
stirred a small ruckus and ended with the Polisario defense
minister severely reprimanding his colleague.

WHICH WAY TO MANHASSET
--------------


6. (C) A subtle yet clear criticism of Morocco and the
perception of U.S. backing for the Moroccan position was
present in many of the conversations we had with Polisario
officials. Governor Adduh emphasized that talks in Manhasset
would not be fruitful without U.S. pressure on Morocco to
negotiate in good faith. After our meetings, presidential
protocol liaison Hamadi Bashir, who also acted as our
translator throughout the day, pressed us on the reasons
behind the UN's delay in announcing a new special envoy.
Bashir asked why the U.S. "blindly" supported Morocco and
urged the U.S. to push Morocco to agree to the new envoy and
to reconvene the next round of Manhasset talks at the
earliest opportunity. The delay, Bashir insisted, was "yet
another Moroccan tactic to designed to stall talks." Bashir
did not mention Ambassador Chris Ross by name.


7. (C) Separately, MINURSO officials in Tindouf conveyed
reports from their colleagues in Morocco that the human
rights situation on the Moroccan side of the berm was getting
worse, but gave no details.

PRAISE FOR U.S. WFP CONTRIBUTION
--------------


8. (U) President of the Sahrawi Red Crescent Society Yahia
Bouhebeini and World Food Program (WFP) representatives
thanked us for our USD 6.8 million food contribution, which
WFP expects to begin receiving in January. Bouhebeini called
the U.S. contribution a genuine humanitarian effort to aid
Sahrawi refugees. WFP's sub-office manager said the U.S.
donation would secure a continuous flow of food aid in the
pipeline for four months. He cautioned, however, that more
donations were needed within the next two months to feed the
refugees beyond May 2009. Bouhebeini and WFP remained
concerned about malnutrition rates and the diversity of food
stocks for rations (reftel).

CBM: NO PROGRESS ON LAND ROUTE
--------------


9. (C) UNHCR's CBM team in Rabouni was positive about the
humanitarian impact of family reunification visits and the
telephone call centers in the camps. UNHCR said 6,645
individuals and 1,783 families have benefited from
UN-sponsored flights to visit relatives living across the
berm. Currently, UNHCR can transport 37 passengers in each
direction and participants can visit with relatives for five
days. No progress has been made, however, on a possible land
route to allow overland transportation for visits. UNHCR
said it hoped to expand the program by using aircraft with
more passenger capacity. As to building confidence between
the two parties, UNHCR officials told us that both sides had
confidence in UNHCR to implement the exchange visits
transparently and objectively, but they said there was little
to suggest that the visits have bolstered the parties'
confidence in each other.


ALGIERS 00001269 003 OF 003


BORDER ISSUES
--------------


10. (C) MINURSO's Dabo revealed no information about illicit
cross-border activities between the camps, Mauritania and
Morocco. He remarked that from his vantage point MINURSO's
observations were limited to a few minor infractions of the
cease-fire agreement. UNHCR's sub-office representative,
Nikola Mihajlovic, told us that he had heard rumors of drug
trafficking across the Mauritanian border, but nothing
related to arms smuggling. Mihajlovic asserted that the
garrison of 30,000 Algerian soldiers in and around the
military town of Tindouf was likely a deterrent for
smugglers. Polisario PM Taleb Omar said some Sahrawi cross
into Mauritania to visit relatives, but he was unaware of
smuggling or security concerns. Smara Governor Adduh noted
that the border region near the camps was too desolate to
pose a risk for smuggling. He added that he was less
concerned about smuggling and the potential exposure to
extremism such activities might bring because the primary
source of tension in the camps was the Western Sahara issue,
and not ideological or religious beliefs.
PEARCE