VZCZCXYZ0028
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHRB #0168/01 0561812
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 251812Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY RABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1261
INFO RUCNMGH/MAGHREB COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 000168 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR DRL/NESCA AND NEA/MAG 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/23/2020 
TAGS: PHUM PREL PREF MO WI
SUBJECT: MOROCCO GRANTS TRAVEL DOCUMENTS TO WESTERN SAHARA 
INDEPENDENCE ACTIVSTS 
 
REF: A. RABAT 41 
     ¶B. 09 RABAT 977 
     ¶C. 09 RABAT 849 
     ¶D. USUN 91 
 
Classified By: Classified By Political Counselor Gregory Thome For Reas 
ons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1.  (C) SUMMARY: The GOM has returned previously 
confiscated travel documents to 14 Sahrawi 
activists.  Upon receiving their passports, several 
promptly departed for Algeria, ostensibly to see 
relatives in the refugee camps near Tindouf but no 
doubt also to consult with Polisario officials. 
Western Sahara-based Sahrawi human rights activists 
have suggested that the GOM timed the returns as a 
calculated maneuver designed to mitigate Polisario 
and Algerian criticism of Morocco's human rights 
record at the informal UN discussions in Westchester 
County.  Nevertheless, the Embassy has frequently 
raised the withholding of travel documents and other 
GOM limitations on Sahrawis' freedom of movement with 
the government as part of our ongoing human rights 
dialogues, and we view the returns as a positive step. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
High Profile Activists Again Free to Travel 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Between February 10 and 22, Moroccan 
authorities in the Western Sahara issued or returned 
previously confiscated passports, national ID cards, 
Spanish residency permits and cell phones to at least 
twelve high-profile Sahrawi pro-independence and 
human rights activists.  On February 11, Djimi 
Elghalia, Vice-Chairwoman of the Sahrawi Association 
of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations (ASVDH) 
was among the first activists to receive her passport 
in Laayoune.  The following day, officials in Dakhla 
issued Aatik Brai a passport and returned his national 
ID card, and also returned national IDs to Sahrawi 
activists Dadach Mohamed, Messoud Larbi, Sbai Ahmed 
and Ismaili Brahim.  Also on February 12, authorities 
issued a passport and returned a Spanish residency 
permit to Khayya Sultana.  Sultana's case had gained 
particular notoriety among Moroccan, Sahrawi and 
international human rights NGOs because of the fact 
that she was suffering from a serious eye ailment -- 
which she alleged was inflicted by Laayoune-based 
police (Ref A) -- that required medical attention 
abroad.  Upon receiving her documents, Sultana 
immediately departed for Spain to consult with 
her doctors. 
 
¶3.  (C) Surprisingly, authorities also issued a passport 
for the first time in nearly 20 years to prominent 
pro-independence advocate Brahim Sabbar.  Sabbar spent 
a total more than 10 years in Moroccan jails, and 
Sahrawi celebrations to mark his most recent release, 
in June 2008, were marked by violent confrontations 
with police.  International human rights NGOs frequently 
cited Sabbar's case as an obvious GOM limitation on 
Sahrawis' freedom of movement.  In response to periodic 
Embassy inquiries, GOM officials repeatedly noted that 
Sabbar's case was "special" and that, under Moroccan 
law, no passport could be issued because an arrest 
warrant against him remained pending.  In a December 
2009 meeting with PolCouns, Sabbar confirmed that the 
warrant was, indeed, the "official" explanation.  However, 
he noted sardonically, he had presented himself on more 
than one occasion to authorities to demand that they 
either issue him a passport or execute the arrest warrant; 
until now, they had always politely declined to do either, 
he reported. 
 
¶4. (SBU) On Feb. 17, Sabbar again asked authorities in 
Guelmin (a largely Sahrawi city that is actually north 
of the "border" between Western Sahara and internationally 
recognized Morocco) to issue him a passport.  They 
refused, and Sabbar responded by launching a hunger 
strike in protest.  On February 22, the GOM relented and 
granted Sabbar his travel document. 
 
------------------------ 
Why the Change of Heart? 
------------------------ 
 
¶5. (SBU) The GOM's rather abrupt decision to issue or 
 
return travel document took many Sahrawi activists by 
surprise.  Our contacts in Laayoune, Dakhla and Guelmin 
reported receiving phone calls from the local police -- 
and, in some cases, visits from plain-clothes officers -- 
asking them to present themselves at regional Ministry 
of the Interior (MOI) offices to claim their passports 
and/or other identification papers.  In some cases, 
authorities handed over new passports promptly based 
on previous applications (some of which had been pending 
for years), while in others the activists were told to 
re-apply.  Laayoune-based authorities and Sahrawis 
have also reported having to wait for passports 
confiscated in Casablanca or elsewhere to be delivered 
to Western Sahara. 
 
¶6.  (C) Brahim Elansari, a Sahrawi activist closely 
associated with Aminatou Haidar's NGO the Collective of 
Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders (CODESA) told Poloff 
by phone that he expected at least three additional 
activists to receive their travel documents soon, 
bringing the number of resolved cases to 14.  This leaves 
three cases remain unresolved, he noted.  Interestingly, 
Elansari -- who is often a vehement critic of the GOM's 
efforts to prevent Sahrawis from traveling, noted that 
in these cases Moroccan officials have been uncharastically 
responsive.  When asked why GOM officials experienced such 
a sudden change of heart, Elansari and others have alleged 
that the returns represented a political maneuver timed to 
coincide with the informal, UN-sponsored Western Sahara 
talks held February 9-10 in Westchester County under 
the auspices of the UNSG's Personal Representative 
Christopher Ross (Reftel D).  The GOM expected the 
Polisario and Algerian delegations to criticize Morocco's 
human rights record in the territory, and sought to 
mitigate those attacks, Elansari claimed.  A senior 
MFA official, for the GOM's part, stated simply that 
the return of the passports was the result of normal 
legal and administrative processes.  MOI officials had 
denied or delayed delivery of the documents; the courts 
had ruled that those officials' decisions were incorrect 
and that the passports should be delivered; and the 
officials complied, he said. 
 
------------------- 
First Stop: Tindouf 
------------------- 
 
¶7.  (C) A number of activists who received their new or 
renewed passports immediately scheduled trips to the Tindouf 
refugee camps in Algeria, Elansari said.  Sabbar was among 
those who immediately traveled, ostensibly to see family 
members -- but also, it appears, to meet with Polisario 
leaders. 
 
¶8.  (C) COMMENT: We find credible our contacts' suggestion 
that the return of the passports might have been timed to 
influence the informal UN talks in Westchester County. 
Whatever the case, we see the return of the Sahrawis' 
documents as a significant, positive step.  The Embassy 
had frequently raised the withholding of travel documents 
and other GOM limitations on Sahrawis' freedom of movement 
with government officials as part of our ongoing human 
rights conversations with the GOM, and we are pleased that, 
for whatever reason, they have begun to respond.  What 
remains to be seen is how the GOM will respond to activists 
-- especially high profile independence advocates like 
Sabbar -- who openly traveled to Tindouf once they return. 
END COMMENT. 
 
 
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