MOROCCO: 2008 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT SPARKS

UNCLAS RABAT 000201

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR DRL, DRL/SEA, DRL/NESCA, G/TIP AND NEA/MAG

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KPAO WI MO
SUBJECT: MOROCCO: 2008 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT SPARKS
DEBATE

REF: A. RABAT 0172

B. RABAT 0065

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Summary
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1. (SBU) The Moroccan and Western Sahara chapters of
the 2008 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
sparked high interest and comments ranging from
favorable to deeply critical. The embassy rollout
included multiple television and radio interviews by
the Charge d'Affaires (CDA) and Embassy staff. The
Foreign Ministry indicated that it did not agree with
many parts of the report, but that when taken together
with an embassy press release noting some of the
progress made here, it was generally satisfied. Human
rights activists were also satisfied with the reports'
quality, although some criticized the report's lack of
"academic rigor." Public and media reaction was
mixed, featuring as much criticism of the United
States' own human rights record as discussion of
Morocco's. Sharply critical statements by the
Minister of Justice and a Palace-affiliated newspaper
may be a message to Moroccan civil society not to see
the report as a signal to open broader criticism of
the Government. Such public undermining could
jeopardize our dialogue on the issue. Post recommends
the Department leverage the debate currently raging
over the reports in Morocco to push for additional
progress in discussions with Moroccan officials in
Washington. End summary.

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Government Reaction
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2. (SBU) CDA Jackson and Acting Deputy Chief of
Mission (A/DCM) Karp delivered French and English
copies of the 2008 Morocco and Western Sahara Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices to Minister of
Foreign Affairs Taieb Fassi Fihri, his Chief of Staff
Nassir Bourita, Director General for Arab and Islamic
Affairs Mohamed Azaroual, and Americas Director Fouad
Yazorgh at 6:00 pm on February 25 (Ref A). They
expressed satisfaction with our productive dialogue on
the issue and appreciation for our balancing the
criticism in the report with statements recognizing
the real progress Morocco had made. Abdelmounaim El
Farouq, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Director
of Humanitarian and Social Affairs (and the working-
level point person on human rights issues) told PolOff
that the report was "fair" and expressed gratitude for
the collaborative relationship between the Government
and the Embassy. Other working level officials at the
MFA expressed some displeasure at what they termed an
"over focus" on police brutality cases.

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A Very Public Launch
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3. (SBU) Post organized substantial press engagement
to roll-out the Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices, including multiple television and radio
interviews by the CDA and PolOff, and a print media
and television round-table with the CDA on the morning
after the reports' release. The Moroccan press widely
reported the Charge's key messages, which were
balanced between praise for Morocco's efforts to
improve its human rights record (such as conducting a
transparent election in 2007),and reminders that
Morocco still had substantial work to do in addressing
impunity, freedom of expression and trafficking in
persons.


4. (SBU) The print press widely interpreted the
reports as harshly critical of Morocco's record over
the past year, highlighting reports of police abuse,
claims of torture and poor conditions in prisons, as
well as corruption and impunity from prosecution, as
indications that Morocco's human rights record left a
lot to be desired. As one noted independent weekly
commented, "When it comes to the worst, yes we can!"
Interestingly, the local press focused much less (than
expected) on the Western Sahara report's evaluation
that Morocco's record in Western Sahara had improved
markedly.



5. (SBU) Moroccan editorials on the reports have
tended to stress that the USG's recent poor human
rights record, suggesting Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and
the Binyam rendition case, for example, disqualifies
the U.S. from the right to judge the actions of
others. Minister of Justice Abdelwahad Radi reflected
this sentiment when he told the press, "Frankly, the
Americans exaggerate; we should not forget that the
United States is greatly criticized when it comes to
human rights." Of particular note was an editorial
that appeared in pro-palace daily Le Matin on March 5,
which, in addition to calling into question the USG's
moral authority, also alleged (without providing
evidence) that the report was not substantiated by
facts. (See block quote below.)


6. (SBU) The piece was unusual in that in broke with
Le Matin's normally reserved tone. It is possible
that its tone and substance came from the Palace as a
message to Moroccan civil society not to see the
report as carte blanche to criticize authorities. If
generated by the Palace, the editorial undermines the
spirit and intent of the formal bilateral human rights
dialogue process (Ref B) and ignores the balanced and
nuanced public statement that the Charge and other
mission staff painstakingly crafted around the launch.
In a subsequent conversations however, the MFA's
Bourita told A/DCM that the GOM remained satisfied
with the reports' balance and had no issue with its
content. He said, "Le Matin is just a newspaper."


7. (U) Block quotes:

"Human Rights: The Umpteenth Report" editorial in pro-
palace French-language daily Le Matin on March 5:

"A report, whatever its source or objective, is only a
report. The one that the State Department has just,
once again, published on human rights in Morocco, sins
through an excessive approximation that no reasonable
man would stand for. And it is not by accident that
the Minister of Justice, Abdelwahad Radi, expressed
his strong reservations about its partial and
erroneous content. The voice coming from abroad,
stamped with the State Department seal or by European
organizations, constantly finds favorable echoes in
our country. Our proposal is not to disavow
completely the content of this 'umpteenth' report of
the U.S. State Department, which, to draw its
conclusions, bases itself on a demarche, [which is at
the very least], doubtful. Nobody in Morocco, and
even less the officials concerned, can stand for such
a report riddled with errors and [marked] by
amateurism. Our country does not host a prison the
style of Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, or Bagram. ... From
2001 to the arrival of Barack Obama at the White
House, America had transfigured itself under the reign
of George W. Bush and his consorts, Dick Cheney and
Donald Rumsfeld, at the lead."

Quote Continued: "Human Rights in Morocco are a
subject undergoing rapid progress, a more positive
than negative subject. Just like democracy, human
rights are never completed; they are consubstantial to
men and decision makers' political will. When human
rights reach and cross a significant line, they never
or rarely regress. In our country, human rights are
neither better nor less good than in European or
American democracies. Human rights proselytes in
Morocco consider that Moroccan justice is corrupted
and that it remains under influence! Trivial: which
Government in the world has a 'perfectly perfect'
justice, i.e. totally and according to Hegel, the words
'absolutely,' independent,' business, mafia,
environment, embezzlement (including Madoff) give us
cause for setbacks. They are not an exception to the
rule, but the rule without exception. We will in no
way approve, and even less tolerate, that a report,
even produced by the U.S. State Department, may indict
the foundations of our human rights policy and
denigrate our national and international pride.

"American paradox," editorial by independent French-
language daily Le Soir on February 27:

"What interest to accord to the most recent State
Department report on the situation of human rights in

the world in general, and in Morocco in particular"
Some years ago, this document was feared by all the
totalitarian regimes [who] waited for its publication
with much apprehension. This was before September 11.
Today, can the America of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo
still permit itself to evaluate whether the Arab and
Islamic world respects human rights or not? The
America that kidnapped Mustapha Hamdi, after 23 years
of loyal service at the U.S. Consulate in Casablanca,
when he arrived at JFK Airport in New York in April
2006, while he was chosen to go from the beginning for
a training class of 10 days in Washington, this
America, does it have the legitimacy to scold Morocco
for the violent acts carried out by its security
services or to titillate on the subject of the non-
independence of its justice? Curious thing. The same
report does not touch upon the case of Mohamed Binyam.
The U.S. State Department has perhaps 'omitted' to
mention the most abominable abuses done to this Briton
of Ethiopian origin during 18 months spent at the
Direction du Surveillance Territoriale (DST - Moroccan
domestic intelligence agency) in Temara [in
Morocco]. The Department of our 'friend' Hillary
Clinton does not say that it is CIA agents who
delegated to their Moroccan counterparts the dirty job
of cutting the genitals of this poor young man with a
razor. One cannot commit all these atrocities and
come later to talk about human rights. George Bush,
Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Peale [sic] and
all these 'children of Satan' have ended up creating a
rupture of trust, even a break, that has been achieved
today, between America and the currents of opinion
that have been quite recently favorable to it in the
Islamic world. Will Obama's America be able to
quickly turn this ignoble page of its history?"

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The Public at Large
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8. (SBU) Pro-independence human rights activist
contacts in Western Sahara expressed a
disappointment in seeing the situation in Western
Sahara described as improved, but agreed that the
number and type of abuses in the territory in 2008
undeniably decreased. They argued that harassment of
Sahrawi activists in Morocco proper increased, a fact
which was noted in both the Morocco report and the
embassy's public statements. Embassy contacts in the
political Berber movement were pleased with the
Morocco report's expanded treatment of their issues.


9. (SBU) PolOff addressed a diverse group of
approximately 50 graduate research students at the
Moroccan Center for Strategic Studies (MCSS - a
private, non-profit think tank) on March 2 as part of
the Embassy's report release outreach. The group in
general echoed broader media sentiments by asking what
authority the United States Government (USG) had to
criticize other nations. Others strongly criticized
the report for not taking local values and cultural
frameworks into account, particularly in relation to
criticism of the King and Islam's role in society.


10. (SBU) Across the board, the students said that
the report lacked academic rigor, a logical framework
or research criteria, and encouraged the USG to apply
exacting standards of proof and research.
Interestingly, one speaker took PolOff to task for not
also implicating Moroccan society in a slowdown of
reform momentum saying, "We, as individuals, are
responsible for taking and paying bribes and
undermining the rule of law as well." The group
agreed to undertake a class project to produce their
own human rights reports on Morocco, Western Sahara
and the United States in 2009 and send them to the
Embassy.

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Next Steps
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11. (SBU) Post recommends that the Department use the
following points in human rights in discussions with
GOM officials:

-- Morocco remains a regional reform leader, as
recognized in our 2008 Human Rights Report, but we are

concerned that reports of abuses in Western Sahara in
2009 have increased significantly in 2009.

-- Impunity remains a serious issue. As discussed in
the dialogue between our Embassy in Rabat and your
Government, we will be required to name abusers in the
2009 report if action is not taken.

-- Morocco needs to distinguish between human
trafficking and smuggling.

-- Prison conditions do not meet international norms.

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Comment
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12. (SBU) Both the reports and Post's robust public
engagement around their launch sparked a vigorous
debate on the state and status of human rights in
Morocco that continued for almost 10 days. It is a
sign of the increasing importance of the issue here
that even the harshest criticism noted that Morocco
still has progress to make and despite its best
efforts, can still regress. We recommend that the
Department leverage the momentum here by raising the
above points at senior levels with Moroccan officials
during their visits to Washington and in meetings
elsewhere. Despite continued MFA expressions of
satisfaction, if government mouthpieces continue to
criticize and undermine the reports and the embassy's
discussions with the GOM (Ref B),we may be obliged to
rethink our formal human rights dialogue to provoke a
reconsideration of tone and intent. End Comment.

Jackson