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.

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Haidar is Still a Moroccan Citizen
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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.

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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.)

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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.


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JACKSON