US embassy cable - 05ALGIERS1765

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ALGIERS 001765 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 25X1-HUMAN 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PBTS, PHUM, AG, MO, WI, Polisario, Algeria-Morocco Relations 
SUBJECT: LUGAR VISIT AFTERMATH 
 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Richard W. Erdman; reasons 1.4 (B)(D) 
 
1. (C) Despite some scattered grumbling in the media and 
elsewhere about U.S. "pressure" and unaddressed humanitarian 
concerns vis-a-vis the Sahrawis, press coverage of Senator 
Lugar's humanitarian mission and the unconditional release of 
all remaining Moroccan prisoners by the Polisario has been 
positive overall.  The Sahrawi and Polisario officials we 
encountered were also generally quite positive, many of them 
noting that the unseasonal desert rainstorm the day before 
was an auspicious omen on the occasion of the POW release. 
The government, despite its feeling let down by aspects of 
our public reaction to the release, has bitten its tongue, 
welcomed what it predictably portrayed as an entirely 
Polisario decision, and, as it promised it would, publicly 
presented the humanitarian release as an opportunity to 
create a more positive dynamic in the region. 
 
GOA CLARIFIES IT IS NOT A PARTY TO THE 
DISPUTE BUT CAN PLAY GOOD OFFICES ROLE 
-------------------------------------- 
 
2. (U) Minister of State Belkhadem, who also serves as 
President Bouteflika's Personal Representative, also issued a 
clarifying statement August 19 in response to Senator Lugar's 
remarks in Morocco suggesting that Algeria and Morocco were 
the negotiating parties in the Western Sahara dispute.  As 
reported in El Khabar August 20, Belkhadem explained that 
Algeria can play a part in the settlement of the conflict, 
but only to the extent of playing a good offices role, 
helping to bring the viewpoints of the two parties to the 
dispute, Morocco and the Polisario, closer together on the 
issue of implementing international legality and UN 
resolutions. 
 
MFA STATEMENT HOPES RELEASE WILL 
MARK BEGINNING OF A POSITIVE DYNAMIC 
------------------------------------ 
 
3. (U) In an August 18 statement released by the Foreign 
Ministry spokesman, Algeria welcomed the release of the 
prisoners by the Polisario to President Bush's envoy, Senator 
Lugar, praising the release as an important humanitarian 
action that demonstrated Polisario's responsible behavior and 
good will.  "With this welcome development, the Polisario 
Front has liberated all the prisoners of war, thus enabling a 
sensitive page in the fratricidal Western Sahara conflict to 
be turned.  Algeria hopes that all other pending humanitarian 
issues can be resolved rapidly, in particular the question of 
Sahrawi prisoners and missing persons. 
 
4. (U) At the same time, the Ministry statement continued, 
Algeria hopes that today's positive development will mark the 
beginning of a dynamic of good neighborliness and positive 
interaction ("convivialite"), to the benefit of all peoples 
in the region.  The statement went on to underscore that 
Algeria remained more than ever attached to international 
legality and wanted to see renewed UN efforts to secure full 
cooperation of the parties to the dispute (Morocco and the 
Polisario) in the context of the peace plan for 
self-determination of the people of the Western Sahara. 
 
BOUTEFLIKA SENDS WARM WISHES ON KING'S BIRTHDAY 
AND ANNIVERSARY OF 1953 UPRISING AGAINST COLONIAL RULE 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
5. (U) Separately, on the occasion of both King Mohammed VI's 
birthday and the anniversary of the uprising of the Moroccan 
king and people against French colonial rule, both of which 
fall on August 21, Bouteflika sent the King a warm letter of 
congratulations.  In his message, Bouteflika conveyed 
"fraternal best wishes" on behalf of himself and the people 
and government of Algeria; praised the King's "enlightened 
leadership"; reaffirmed Algeria's "firm will and 
determination to pursue cooperation and work together for the 
development of special, brotherly relations between Morocco 
and Algeria"; and recalled their shared struggle against 
colonial rule, describing it as launching a new era in their 
relations and in the Maghreb. 
 
POSITIVE RHETORIC BELIES CONTINUING PRIVATE ANGER 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
6. (C) Beneath the generally positive public rhetoric, it is 
clear from Bouteflika's August 18 comments to Senator Lugar 
(Algiers 1753) that he is incensed over perceived Moroccan 
insults and policy moves, particularly Morocco's last-minute 
cancellation of Prime Minister Ouyahia's visit in June and 
what Algeria sees as a policy of "faits accomplis" regarding 
the Western Sahara.  In this regard, Bouteflika's comment 
that Algeria would only improve relations with Morocco if the 
latter agreed to return to the UN framework (for resolving 
the Western Sahara issue) would appear to go beyond Algeria's 
standard position that bilateral relations and the Western 
Sahara issue are completely separate and that disagreement 
over the latter need not hold back the development of 
relations.  While time will tell, the MFA spokesman's 
remarks, Bouteflika's birthday/anniversary message to the 
King, and Presidential Chief of Staff Belkheir's reported 
appointment to Rabat as Ambassador all suggest Bouteflika's 
comments may have been more a venting of personal anger and 
frustration than a genuine shift in longstanding policy. 
 
ABRUPT CANCELLATION OF OUYAHIA 
VISIT AT HEART OF BOUTEFLIKA'S PIQUE 
------------------------------------ 
 
7. (C) The abrupt manner in which the King cancelled PM 
Ouyahia's visit in June (declaring the visit "inopportune" 
only 45 minutes after informing the Algerians that the King 
would meet with and host Ouyahia at lunch) is at the heart of 
Bouteflika's pique and offended pride because he saw it as a 
direct, grave, and high-level sign of disrespect both toward 
Algeria and to his own person as president.  Previous 
explanations attributing the cancellation to accumulating 
Moroccan frustrations over Algerian "right to independence" 
rhetoric, or Algeria's failure to adequately respond to the 
King's important gesture of attending the Arab League Summit 
in Algeria in March, in our view have not been fully 
convincing because the King had agreed to receive Ouyahia 
DESPITE this provocative rhetoric.  (The Algerians, for their 
part, would argue that their rhetoric was in response to 
mounting Moroccan statements and actions rejecting a 
referendum and treating Moroccan sovereignty over the Western 
Sahara as a fait accompli.)  So what changed in the 45-minute 
period? 
 
A POSSIBLY MORE CONVINCING 
EXPLANATION OF THE CANCELLATION 
------------------------------- 
 
8. (C) Moroccan Ambassador Benryane (strictly protect) told 
Ambassador in early August the real reason for the abrupt 
cancellation was the King's anger when he received the final 
Algerian delegation list for the visit.  According to 
Benryane, the King had viewed the meeting of the two prime 
ministers as primarily political in nature, with the object 
of the meeting being agreement on concrete steps that would 
result in a reopening of the border.  He had resisted 
agreeing to personally receive the Algerian PM as long as it 
was not clear that the Algerian Foreign and Interior 
Ministers would be on the delegation, because he viewed their 
participation as evidence that the Algerians also viewed the 
visit in a political framework and were serious about an 
early reopening of the border. 
 
9. (C) According to Benryane, when the King was presented a 
delegation list that included the two ministers, he 
immediately agreed to meet with and host PM Ouyahia and word 
was relayed within minutes to Algiers via the Algerian 
ambassador in Rabat.  Shortly after the King extended the 
invitation, the Moroccans received the final delegation list 
from the Algerians.  That list showed the Foreign and 
Interior ministers would not be on the delegation after all. 
The King in turn angrily concluded the Algerians were not 
serious and ordered the Algerians be told the time was not 
"opportune" for the Prime Minister's visit. 
 
ERDMAN