ALGERIAN GOVERNMENT REACTS NEGATIVELY TO HUMAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ALGIERS 000361 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/26/2018 TAGS: PHUM PREL KDEM AG SUBJECT: ALGERIAN GOVERNMENT REACTS NEGATIVELY TO HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT REF: 07 ALGIERS 859 Classified By: Ambassador Robert S. Ford; reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) MFA Director General for the Americas Fatiha Selmane convoked Ambassador on March 26 to relay the GOA's dissatisfaction with the Department's 2007 Human Rights Report on Algeria. She complained that the report depicted the human rights scene in Algeria as "static" when it is, she claimed, improving. She opined that while the report contained some examples of progress, the positive examples were tempered by a "however," paired with other examples that were negative. The GOA is still smarting from the June 2007 release of the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report (ref). Selmane said that the Algerian government was prosecuting individuals for TIP-related crimes, even though TIP was not formally recognized in Algerian law. ¶2. (C) The Ambassador told Selmane that the Embassy was committed to dialogue with the Algerian government on all human rights issues and asked Selmane to communicate to us what it perceived to be specific inaccuracies with the Human Rights Report. He reminded her that the Embassy had sought numerous meetings to improve its understanding of the local human rights scene, but that some elements of the Algerian government, such as the Interior and Justice ministries, were not forthcoming with information and did not explain their reluctance. He noted that, despite our formal request to the MFA, post has not received information detailing the extent to which the GOA is prosecuting TIP-related crimes. ¶3. (C) Ambassador highlighted three other areas where we saw major problems with respect to the respect of human rights: -- Algerian government use of defamation laws to intimidate journalists (Ambassador highlighted the negative impact of jailing journalists as prominent as el-Watan newspaper's Omar Belhouchet). He urged the GOA to change its laws to decriminalize defamation and offered Embassy help providing information on how other countries had done so. Selmane had no substantive response. -- denial of freedom of association, including by Christian groups. Selmane noted that the GOA had laws that required both Muslim and Christian activists to register their religious buildings and associations. The GOA had done so in order to ensure Muslim extremists did not proliferate new NGOs and mosques as had occurred in the 1990s. Ambassador agreed religious extremism is a problem but cautioned that the Interior Ministry is blocking the approval of many NGOs, and flaunting its own regulations by refusing even to accept applications. The Ambassador later pulled Selmane to the side and underlined the importance to us of allowing Christian groups who follow Algerian law and apply to register their activities to operate. He cautioned that the GOA could anticipate sharp criticism from American government and non-government groups if it discriminated against Christians in Algeria. -- elections management: the Ambassador reminded Selmane that we had raised problems in April 2007 prior to the legislative elections and again in November but had not seen any indication that the GOA wanted to address the concerns we were hearing from our own contacts. ¶4. (C) COMMENT: This was the official GOA reaction to the 2007 Human Rights Report and, predictably, our interlocutor expressed displeasure although it was hardly a tough demarche. We provided Selmane with copies of four diplomatic notes, sent between August 2007 and November 2007, that requested MFA approval for outside meetings to obtain information for the report. We made the point that by not accepting the meetings, the GOA was itself to blame, at least in part, if it thought our information was inaccurate. Meanwhile, the GOA is trying to deter NGOs and political activists from meeting with us even though the MFA officially denies this. Ambassador had delivered the report on March 23 to the official Algerian government human rights commission president Farouk Ksentini. In contrast to the MFA's Selmane who says nothing without instruction, Ksentini said he agreed entirely on the need to decriminalize defamation laws here, ALGIERS 00000361 002 OF 002 grant wider freedom of association, not impede Christian groups who follow the rules for registration, and on the need to address shortcomings in the elections process. FORD