UPDATE ON THE AMINATOU HAIDAR CASE

C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 000935 SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/MAG, PRM/AFR, IO/UNP, H AND DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/25/2019 TAGS: PHUM PREF PREL PGOV MO SUBJECT: UPDATE ON THE AMINATOU HAIDAR CASE REF: A. RABAT 0915 ¶B. ALGIERS 1041 Classified By: CDA Robert P. Jackson for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Prominent pro-independence and human rights activist Aminatou Haidar remains in Spain following the GOM's refusal to allow her to enter Morocco on November 13. The GOM has now announced that Haidar will be granted a new passport if she re-applies for one at the Moroccan consulate in the Canary Islands and declares that she is a Moroccan. However, Haidar has indicated that she does not intend to apply for a new passport. The Spanish MFA has confirmed to the GOM that it will consider granting her asylum if she remains in Spain, even though she has a valid residency permit. The actual facts in this case remain hotly disputed, with the GOM insisting that Haidar has initiated a formal process to renounce her nationality and Haidar herself insisting that the GOM expelled her against her will. We continue to urge the GOM to find a way to resolve this case and not to allow it to negatively impact on the upcoming resumption of UN-brokered talks on the Western Sahara. END SUMMARY. -------------- Haidar is Still a Moroccan Citizen -------------- ¶2. (C) PolCouns met with MFA Chief of Staff and Director General for Multilateral Affairs and Global Cooperation Nasser Bourita on November 24 to get an update and further clarification on the exact status of Aminatou Haidar, who has remained in Spain since November 13 when Moroccan immigration authorities refused to allow her entry at the Laayoune Airport in the Western Sahara. Bourita confirmed Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri's November 19 press statement, in which he stated that Haidar could be re-issued a Moroccan passport if she were to apply for one at the Moroccan Consulate in the Canary Islands. Bourita clarified that, technically, she has not "lost" her Moroccan nationality and is still eligible for a passport. The process of renouncing citizenship is complicated and requires a full legal procedure before a Moroccan court. The first step in that process is a formal written statement before a state attorney declaring an intention to renounce citizenship. Haidar made such a declaration before a state attorney at the Laayoune Airport, Bourita maintained. Next steps would involve hearings before a judge and additional formal statements reaffirming the intention to renounce, and, finally, a written "judgment" from the court that indicating citizenship has been rescinded. Since Haidar has only completed the first step in the process, Bourita further explained, no written "judgment" has been and no revocation of citizenship has occurred as of this point; therefore, Haidar is still a citizen. ¶3. (C) Bourita further confirmed that Haidar's written statement of intent to renounce citizenship would be disregarded if she presented herself at the Moroccan Consulate, declared that she is a Moroccan, and re-applied for a passport through the normal procedures. However, he cautioned, his understanding was that she had no intent to declare herself Moroccan or to re-apply for a passport. -------------- Haidar's Views -------------- ¶4. (C) Haidar's own public and private statements suggest that she is unlikely to apply for a passport any time soon. In a November 17 telcon with PolCouns, Haidar did express that she intended to return to Laayoune but confirmed that Moroccan immigration officials had confiscated her passport. However, she described the Moroccan process as corrupt, politicized and illegitimate, and accused the Governments of Spain and Morocco of colluding to "violate my rights." She also confirmed that she was allowed to enter Spain because she holds a valid residence card, but stated that Spanish authorities would not allow her to leave Spain. During the telcon, Haidar did not confirm or deny that she had signed a statement indicating an intention to renounce citizenship during her ordeal in Laayoune, but she has subsequently stated to the Spanish and Moroccan press that she did so. Privately and publicly, Haidar has strongly contested the GOM's allegation that she returned to the Canary Islands willingly, restating her view that the GOS and the GOM made her go there against her will. ¶5. (C) Meanwhile, the Spanish MFA has confirmed to the GOM that it would consider granting Haidar asylum if she refused to re-apply for a Moroccan passport. The GOM maintains that it has records indicating that Haidar had Spanish citizenship in the past based, on her birth in Rio del Oro during the Spanish colonial period. However, she allegedly renounced it when she applied for a Moroccan passport in the late 1990s. (NOTE: Haidar had to be a Moroccan citizen in order to qualify for the indemnity payment she received from the GOM based on the Reconciliation Commission's finding that her human rights had been violated during her imprisonment in the 1990s. END NOTE.) -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶6. (C) The truth of what actually happened in the Haidar case remains hard to unearth, not least because both Haidar and the GOM have waged their war of words either through a clearly biased Moroccan media or through the web sites of apparently sympathetic NGOs. Even our interlocutors' private conversations with the Embassy have been infused with anger and political ulterior motives, making objectivity a rare commodity. We have urged Haidar to reconsider her hunger strike, given her already-precarious health, but aside from this our ability to impact her intentions and actions is minimal, in particular given her current location. As for Moroccan officials, with whom we have more influence, we are making every effort to detach ourselves from their angry and overly nationalistic arguments -- which they have repeated to us ad nauseum -- and continue our effort to urge them back onto the high road. In particular, we continue to press for a diplomatic solution to this particular standoff but, more importantly, we will encourage the GOM not to let incidents of this type jeopardize upcoming Western Sahara negotiations under the auspices of UN Personal Envoy Christopher Ross, tentatively scheduled to resume in the next two weeks. END COMMENT. ***************************************** Visit Embassy Rabat's Classified Website; http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Moro cco ***************************************** JACKSON