SAHRAWI ACTIVIST RENOUNCES MOROCCAN CITIZENSHIP

C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 000915

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA, H, IO/UNP AND NEA/MAG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/16/2019
TAGS: PHUM PGOV MO WI
SUBJECT: SAHRAWI ACTIVIST RENOUNCES MOROCCAN CITIZENSHIP

REF: A. RABAT 0908

B. RABAT 0849

Classified By: DCM Robert P. Jackson for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: On November 13, prominent Sahrawi
independence activist Aminatou Haidar renounced her Moroccan
citizenship at the Laayoune international airport. Although
her family and a government attorney had urged her to
reconsider, she opted to return to the Canary Islands.
Immigration officials had been ordered to facilitate her
entry in hopes of avoiding a publicity stunt, but were
surprised when she took the drastic step of renunciation.
GOM officials did question Haidar about aspects of her recent
trip abroad, but they never formally arrested her, and she
was in no way mistreated. Haidar made no secret during her
travels abroad over the past two months -- often in the
company of Algerian or Polisario officials -- that she
intended to challenge GOM authorities in some way upon her
return. The Mission will continue to remind both GOM
officials and Sahrawi activists that incidents like this do
nothing to advance future UN-sponsored Western Sahara
negotiations. END SUMMARY.

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What Happened at the Airport
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2. (U) On November 13, Aminatou Haidar, a prominent Sahrawi
human rights and independence activist, returned to Morocco
from a multi-week international tour that had taken her to
Nigeria, the U.S., Belgium and Spain. While abroad, she had
held meetings with high-level officials and prominent NGOs in
all countries and accepted several awards, including the
Civil Courage Prize from the Train Foundation in the U.S.
Upon her much-publicized arrival from the Canary Islands,
Haidar refused to present her Moroccan passport to
immigration officials at the Laayoune international airport
and insisted she would fill out standard immigration
paperwork only if she were permitted to declare her
nationality as "Sahrawi." Immigration officials subsequently
referred her to "secondary," where the chief of airport
immigration again urged her to present her Moroccan passport
and to enter the country quietly. She again refused and, at
this point, announced her intention to renounce her Moroccan
citizenship.


3. (U) Moroccan immigration officials responded by calling
in a Ministry of Justice attorney, who explained to Haidar
the legal ramifications of such a decision. She also met
separately at the airport with several members of her family
and with the leader of her clan, all of whom urged her to
reconsider her decision. Despite their efforts, Haidar
insisted on signing a document formally renouncing her
citizenship. She did so in the presence of the attorney and
her family members. At this point, according to press
reports, she handed over her passport over to MOJ officials.
With her refusal to enter the country, immigration officials
then gave her the option of returning to her place of
departure, which she accepted. Haidar boarded the next
flight back to the Canary Islands, which departed early on
the morning of November 14.

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What Else Happened
--------------


4. (C) Senior GOM officials in both Laayoune and Rabat had
been expecting Haidar to engage in some type of publicity
stunt upon her return but admitted that they were surprised
that she went so far as to renounce her nationality.
According to the chief of staff (COS) to Laayoune's Wali,
i.e., the senior Laayoune-based MOI official, the MOI had
given airport immigration authorities specific instructions
to facilitate Haidar's entry and to do everything possible to
minimize a possible publicity stunt in connection with her
return. The GOM was fully aware that she would be traveling
in the company of Spanish and Moroccan journalists. The
Collective of Sahrawi Defenders of Human Rights (CODESA) --
the Moroccan NGO that Haidar leads -- had issued press
releases publicizing the date and time of her return.
However, the COS said, immigration officials were unprepared
for Haidar -- who holds a Moroccan civil service job and
whose family is Moroccan -- to take the dramatic step of
renouncing her citizenship.


5. (C) CODESA and some other NGOs quickly issued press
statements denouncing the whole event and accusing the GOM of
arresting, detaining and even "abducting" Haidar. This was
not the case. MFA and other MOI contacts acknowledged that
immigration and police officials asked Haidar questions about
her trip abroad. In particular, they were concerned about
money they alleged she had accepted from a Nigerian NGO as
well as her extensive contacts with Algerian and Polisario
officials in Nigeria and Europe. However, they insisted that
at no time was she formally arrested or imprisoned. In
response to our specific expressions of concern about
Haidar's human rights, several senior GOM sources have
repeatedly assured us that immigration officials treated her
with dignity and fully respected her basic rights -- a claim
consistent with press reports.

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Comment: What Next
--------------


6. (C) According to press reports and CODESA
representatives, Haidar arrived safely in Spain but has now
threatened to go on a hunger strike until Moroccan
authorities agree to permit her to return to Laayoune as a
"Sahrawi national." Her demand will not be met any time
soon. Meanwhile, Moroccan officials recognize that the whole
episode has been poorly interpreted internationally, and they
lament that events like this and like the arrest of the seven
activists last month (reftels) are likely to continue. The
Moroccan view of this recent spate of "provocations"
engineered by the Polisario and by Algiers in an attempt to
undermine the upcoming informal round of UN talks tentatively
scheduled for late November. Whether there is any truth to
that argument, we have repeatedly over the past four days
urged GOM interlocutors to remain on the positive paths they
had already charted in terms of supporting a resumption of
the UN-sponsored negotiations; calling for dialogue and
increased confidence building measures with Algeria;
continuing to improve social, economic and human rights in
Western Sahara; and tolerating dissenting opinions no matter
how distasteful or insulting they find them. Our MFA
interlocutors do not need to be convinced of these arguments.
However, others in the GOM ) in the MOI and elsewhere --
are less likely to take the high road in response to future
provocations as blatant as Haidar's. End Comment.


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Kaplan