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