ALGERIAN PARLIAMENTARIANS ON BOUTEFLIKA AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ALGIERS 001296 CODEL SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/15/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM OREP PBTS MO AG SUBJECT: ALGERIAN PARLIAMENTARIANS ON BOUTEFLIKA AND WESTERN SAHARA REF: A. ALGIERS 1288 ¶B. ALGIERS 1280 Classified By: Ambassador David D. Pearce for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Parliamentarians told Codel Hastings on December 2 that they believed the international community must play a greater role in resolving the Western Sahara question and that a third term for President Bouteflika is necessary for the well-being of Algeria. The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs also explained how his ministry functions and extolled the virtues of Algeria's multiparty system (an explanation that actually served to highlight the relative weakness of the legislative branch in Algeria, even as the former prime minister told the Ambassador that legislative reform aimed at strengthening the parliament are on the horizon, ref A). Rep. Hastings engaged the Algerians on the issue of international election observers (ref B),and pressed them to find a way to move forward on the question of Western Sahara. He also invited parliamentarians to future meetings of the OSCE, and said that he would urge Senator Hillary Clinton and Governor Bill Richardson, assuming they are each confirmed for cabinet positions, to the region to help boost relations in the Maghreb. END SUMMARY. -------------- -------------- DEAR LEADER, OR WHY ALGERIA STILL NEEDS BOUTEFLIKA -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) With reverence reminiscent of official statements from North Korea, parliamentary leaders who met with Congressman Alcee Hastings on December 2 extolled the virtues of their president, and reiterated why the leading parties had recently met to ask Bouteflika to run for a third term. Abdelaziz Ziari, president of the Popular National Assembly (APN) and a ruling FLN party loyalist, noted that a majority of parliament, including among opposition parties, voted in favor of the constitutional change that will allow Bouteflika to stand for a third term. Ziari said that Bouteflika had the experience, skills and trust of the people that were needed to maintain stability in Algeria. "The people wanted this," he said, quickly adding, "perhaps not all of the young people, but everyone knows it is necessary." ¶3. (C) Abderezak Bouhara, vice president of the Council of the Nation (also called the Senate, the upper house of parliament) and an FLN elder statesman, cast Bouteflika in an odd, patriotic-reformer light. Bouhara began by saying the constitutional amendments were no surprise; they had been discussed since Bouteflika first took office. He said recent "important events" have made the changes urgently necessary, and tried to portray them as "a step toward reform." But, he added, change in Algeria "must be done quietly." Bouhara praised Bouteflika's "rich experience developed since the national revolution," and cajoled his colleagues in the room to agree that the president was a reformer who liked to "break taboos." Bouhara proffered that the ruling coalition of parties "insist that he runs, and we hope from the bottom of our hearts that he does." -------------- AN ODD LESSON IN MULTIPARTY DEMOCRACY -------------- ¶4. (C) Rep. Hastings also met Minister of Parliamentary Relations Mahmoud Khedri, who explained his function as "defending the interests of parliament before the Council of Ministers, and defending the interests of government before the parliament." But he highlighted that, in fact, he is a member of the government and has sole responsibility for coordinating relations between the government and the parliament. Khedri began the meeting on the defensive, saying "no country has paid the price for democracy as has Algeria." He claimed that the international community abandoned Algeria during its struggle against terrorists in the 1990s, and that countries like the United States actually harbored Algerian terrorists under the guise of human rights and asylum. He said that it was not until after September 11 that the world came to appreciate Algeria's struggle against terror. ¶5. (C) Khedri explained how multiparty democracy works in ALGIERS 00001296 002 OF 003 Algeria, stating that there were 27 recognized political parties and 85,000 approved associations. He asserted that the legislative branch controlled the work of the executive and provided a check on executive power. But he added that the parliament's power to question the executive branch was executed literally by submitting a list of questions. Khedri repeatedly skirted Rep. Hastings' question as to whether parliamentarians hired staff to carry out legislative work. Eventually he admitted that MPs did not have staff, but all of parliament had access to a team of "legislative technicians." Khedri also noted, however, that he managed a staff of 130. ¶6. (C) Khedri discussed at length how it was impossible for small Algerian parties to claim fraud or injustice in the political system when there were 22 parties and one independent represented in the upper house alone. In addition to denying the effectiveness of election monitors (ref B),he also challenged complaints by small parties in recent elections that they had not had access to full candidate lists. Khedri claimed that under the 2004 election law, personal information provided to election authorities is considered protected for privacy and security reasons. Therefore, he said, it was impossible for authorities to release all of the election lists, because those lists include personal data such as addresses and family information. He concluded by pointing out to Rep. Hastings, a former judge like Khedri, that the 2004 election law also placed provincial oversight in the hands of judges rather than political committees. This eliminated the chance of fraud, he told the Congressman, "because as you and I both know, there is no place for fraud in the judiciary." -------------- WESTERN SAHARA: WE CAN'T DO IT ALONE -------------- ¶7. (C) Representatives of both houses of parliament pressed Rep. Hastings on the issue of the Western Sahara. APN President Ziari said that the dispute was not between Algeria and Morocco. Algeria did not care about the territory itself, he was quick to point out, "we leave that in the capable hands of the international community." Rather, Ziari said, it was an issue of decolonization and Algeria would welcome whatever decision was reached, even assimilation into Morocco, as long as it was a decision made by the Sahrawi people. Ziari also said that the issue retarded economic integration and political cooperation in the Maghreb, and urged that the international community do more to try to resolve the issue. Rep. Hastings pushed the onus back on the Algerians, saying that when he was a judge he would frequently leave two parties with seemingly insurmountable claims against each other in a room alone over lunch to work out a compromise on their own, which was often successful. He warned, however, that if neither Morocco nor Algeria appeared willing to work toward a true compromise, the international community would not waste time engaging further in an already decades-old stalemate. ¶8. (C) Ziari pointed out that Algerian and Moroccan parliamentarians work together on the Maghreb Parliamentary Assembly, but lamented that his Moroccan counterparts only "express the views of the King." He noted that there were many cultural and historic commonalities between the countries that should be expanded upon. The Senate's Bouhara also noted collaborative efforts between the countries' parliaments, and opined that "secondary issues, like the Western Sahara, can be overcome." When asked by Hastings, Ziari admitted that some European powers might actually interfere in the process of resolving the simmering disputes between Algeria and Morocco, noting specifically, "France gets in the way sometimes." -------------- SEE YOU SOON? -------------- ¶9. (C) Rep. Hastings' final message to all he met was that he hoped to be able to return to the region both in his capacity as a representative of the OSCE parliamentary assembly and as an election observer (ref B),and he invited parliamentarians to future meetings regarding the OSCE process. He also ALGIERS 00001296 003 OF 003 stressed several times that he would ask Sen. Clinton and Gov. Richardson, assuming they were confirmed for cabinet positions, to visit the countries of the region soon to help spur regional dialogue and integration. He thanked the Algerians for their efforts in resolving past conflicts, such as Ziari's role as the medical doctor who treated the American diplomats held hostage in Iran (Note: The reference, dropped in as an aside, was met by a sheepish but broad, appreciative smile by Ziari. End note.). He suggested that if the Algerians could find a way to work with Morocco to resolve outstanding issues in the region, he would like to see them act as mediators in disputes beyond the Maghreb, and even beyond the Middle East. -------------- COMMENT: IMBALANCE OF POWERS -------------- ¶10. (C) One lesson that can be drawn from the meetings between Rep. Hastings and parliamentary officials is that the Algerian legislative branch is not a significant counterweight to the power of the executive. The parliamentarians spent far more time discussing their president and his agenda than their own, and the Minister of Parliamentary Relations highlighted the weakness of the legislative branch by explaining what little power it has, and how tightly the ruling parties coordinate elections. No one in the meetings really discussed constituent needs or desires, other than to insist that the people want Bouteflika to remain in office. Thus, party representation, rather than popular representation, appears to be the focal point of democracy in the eyes of the ruling party representatives. In spite of that, former Prime Minister Belkhadem told the Ambassador on December 7 that reforms were expected in 2009 that would strengthen the legislative branch, perhaps even giving it authority to author legislation. It remains to be seen if the lack of connection with the people will undercut these leaders in future elections. Underlying Khedri's own sarcasm was a sense of popular distrust and dissent when he defensively asked, "How can one say we have no freedom of the press, when all government officials -- from the highest to the lowest -- are regularly criticized in the papers?" End Comment. ¶11. (U) Rep. Hastings did not have the opportunity to clear this cable PEARCE