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OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHCL #0216/01 3341025
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O 301025Z NOV 09
FM AMCONSUL CASABLANCA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8564
INFO RUCNMGH/MAGHREB COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L CASABLANCA 000216 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/MAG, PRM/AFR AND IO/UNP 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/30/2019 
TAGS: PREF PGOV SMIG PREL PHUM MO AG
SUBJECT: WESTERN SAHARA: CONFIDENCE BUILDING MEASURES 
 
Classified By: Consul general Millard for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The UN-administered Confidence 
Building Measures (CBMs) in Western Sahara have thus 
far fallen short in achieving their underlying 
political goal of pushing the parties to interact 
regularly and build a relationship for future 
negotiations.  The CBMs, however, have provided a 
vital humanitarian service by keeping alive the link 
between families separated for more than 30 years 
through visits by air and telephone calls.  Since 
2008, the UN has urged an expansion of the CBM 
program by creating a road link between the camps in 
Algeria and the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara 
territory that would triple the number of family 
exchanges in a year.  The UN is hopeful that the 
expansion will invigorate the parties to deal 
directly with one another while the Government of 
Morocco and the POLISARIO each see their own 
interests advanced by the program.  On a recent 
visit to Western Sahara, Poloff witnessed first hand 
a family exchange in Dakhla facilitated by UNHCR and 
the GOM.  END SUMMARY. 
 
CBM: HOW IT WORKS 
----------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The CBMs began in 2004 as a means to 
facilitate communication and contact between 
families in the camps in Algeria and the 
corresponding cities in the Moroccan-controlled 
Sahara through family visits and free telephone 
services to refugees in the camps.  The program is 
managed by UNHCR with the logistical support of the 
United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western 
Sahara (MINURSO), which provides the planes to 
transport the families.  UNHCR registered people who 
wanted to participate in the family visit in 2004 
and again in 2008.  Currently there are 41,166 
people registered; 27,586 or 67 percent are in 
Tindouf and 13,580 are in the Territory.  The 
beneficiaries are required to have a direct family 
link (parent, child, sibling, or spouse) with a 
person in the other location and priority is given 
to people with special needs, particularly the 
elderly.  To date 9,060 (22 percent of those 
registered) have participated in a family visit. 
 
¶3. (SBU) In addition to the family visits, UNHCR 
provides telephone centers in four of the five 
camps.  The free telephone calls help the families 
maintain relations and allows those who have 
participated in a family visit to build on the 
experience and maintain close contact with family 
members.  The beneficiaries are permitted one call 
per week which is limited to ten minutes.  To date 
some 117,944 calls have been made. 
 
¶4. (SBU) In the early hours on October 15, before 
the sun had risen, poloff observed a group of 28 
Sahrawis dressed in their finest blue and white 
tribal robes as they waited in the Dakhla airport. 
There were elderly people and young children who 
were traveling to visit a parent or sibling they had 
never met or not seen for more than 30 years.  The 
airport had more than a dozen officials from the 
Ministry of Interior (MOI) making final checks on 
the manifest and to provide security.  Accompanied 
by a MINURSO civilian police and medical officer, 
the Sahrawis boarded a noisy Anotnov-26 plane for a 
two hour flight to the remote Tindouf camp in 
Algeria.  In the early afternoon, the Sahrawi 
refugees from the camps arrived.  They waited 
briefly in airport terminal while their bags were 
searched for any political pamphlets, POLISARIO 
flags or other contraband.  UNHCR then whisked the 
refugees away delivering them to their families. 
Poloff was not allowed by the Government of Morocco 
(GOM) to observe the reunifications because, 
according to UNHCR field officers, on occasions the 
families display political banners or make a 
demonstration. 
 
ESTABLISHING A LAND LINK 
------------------------ 
 
¶5. (C) The expansion of the CBM program to include a 
land link was first proposed during the Manhasset 
Talks in 2008.  During his September 2009 visit to 
the region, the United Nations High Commissioner for 
Refugees Antonio Guterres secured a commitment from 
the parties pending various caveats (Reftel).  UNHCR 
estimates that a land link would add 4,400 people to 
the 2,500 participants, nearly tripling the number 
of beneficiaries.  The current proposal would create 
a land route from Tindouf, through the berm and to 
the town of Mahbes.  Apart from the technical issues 
related to demining, the biggest political obstacle 
is that beneficiaries would pass through a five 
kilometer stretch of POLISARIO-controlled territory. 
The Moroccans, reluctant to give any tacit 
recognition to the POLISARIO, have raised 
objections, but also reassure us and the UNHCR that 
if Algeria shows the right political will, they will 
support the project. 
 
¶6. (C) Alexander Ivanko, Political Advisor to 
MINURSO, told poloff that he believes ultimately the 
Moroccans will agree to some form of compromise 
which likely will involve MINURSO forces 
accompanying the beneficiaries through POLISARIO 
territory.  "They view the visits as to their 
advantage," he explained.  Clearly, one Moroccan 
goal would be to entice refugees to return to 
Moroccan-controlled Sahara.  The Moroccans have 
poured millions of dirhams into creating a new 
Laayoune replete with modern infrastructure and, 
ostensibly, ample employment opportunities.  Poloff 
toured the desalination plant and a state of the art 
port facility.  The GOM was at pains to point out 
the three hospitals, a newly-constructed sports 
stadium, subsidized housing, and the absence of any 
shanty towns.  The Moroccans believe that Sahrawi 
refugees visiting their relatives in Moroccan- 
controlled territory will be swayed by the favorable 
conditions they find and will decide their interests 
are best served by a future with Morocco. 
 
¶7. (C) Despite Moroccan enticements, it is very rare 
for participants to stay in Morocco during a CBM 
family visit, Fatiha Abdalla, Head of Operations for 
CBM measures in Laayoune, told poloff.  Since 2004, 
35 people have stayed on Moroccan side and two 
remained in Tindouf according to Abdallah.  She 
cautioned that personal and family issues are 
normally the deciding factors, rather than questions 
of political loyalty.  "There is no need to build 
confidence among the families.  They are of the same 
blood, they have the same mentality, the same 
culture; they are not estranged," said Haile an 
UNHCR field officer facilitating the family visits. 
 
 
BUILDING CONFIDENCE FOR WHOM? 
----------------------------- 
 
¶8. (C) While UNHCR insists on the humanitarian and 
non-political nature of the family visits, Fatiha 
Abdalla admitted to poloff that, in theory the 
underlying assumption was that the implementation of 
the CBM would compel the parties to communicate more 
frequently to work out details of the visits.  This 
interaction and communication would provide the 
basis for a relationship and hence build the 
confidence of the parties.  In practice, Abdalla 
said, this has not happened.  The parties have 
refused to deal with one another directly and have 
exclusively relied on UNHCR to act as the 
intermediary. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶9. (C) Nevertheless, the CBM is a valuable program 
for both the humanitarian assistance it provides and 
for the potential promise of political dividends. 
An expansion of the program tripling the number of 
beneficiaries would undoubtedly create many 
opportunities for the parties to engage if they were 
willing.  It is a positive sign that both the GOM 
and the POLISARIO see the program as beneficial 
though MINURSO's Ivanko opined that Algeria, which 
stands to gain little, might scuttle the deal. 
Finally, the strongest selling point for the CBM 
might well be that after years of disinformation 
from all sides as to the conditions on the ground, 
the people affected are able to see first hand the 
other side and hear the experience of their 
relatives. 
 
This message was coordinated with Embassy Rabat. 
MILLARD