US embassy cable - 05THEHAGUE2515

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 THE HAGUE 002515 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/UBI, EUR/PPD, AF/S 
JUSTICE FOR OIA - JFRIEDMAN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/15/2015 
TAGS: PBTS, PREL, XA, AO, NL, KPAO 
SUBJECT: STATUS OF BEMBE EXTRADITION 
 
REF: A. SECSTATE 158147 (AND PREVIOUS) 
     B. LUANDA 01180 
 
Classified By: Chat Blakeman for Reasons 1.4 (B)(D). 
 
1.  (C) Summary:  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not 
taken a formal position on the Bembe extradition case but is 
clearly uncomfortable with several aspects of it.  A senior 
MFA official told Charge September 14 the ministry's role to 
date has been limited to providing factual information to the 
court but that it may take a formal position for or against 
the extradition after hearings resume October 4.  Charge said 
Washington officials were following the case closely and were 
concerned that a straight-forward extradition case threatened 
to become unnecessarily politicized.  End Summary. 
 
State of Play 
 
2.  (U) As reported in e-mails to EUR/UBI and AF/S, an 
initial hearing on the Bento Bembe extradition case was held 
September 13.  Defense attorneys raised several objections to 
the extradition request, challenging it on jurisidictional 
grounds and asserting that the case -- involving the 
kidnapping of a Chevron employee in Angola in 1990 --  was 
political by nature and therefore not subject to extradition. 
 The court also received a letter from MFA explaining the 
ministry's role in "facilitating" a visa for Bembe to attend 
an NGO-sponsored effort in The Hague to help resolve the 
Cabinda dispute in Angola.  The hearing is to resume October 
4, at which time MFA is to provide detailed information on 
its involvement in Bembe's visit to The Hague last summer, 
which ended in his arrest by Dutch police on June 21.  He 
remains in custody. 
 
3.  (U)  The Bembe case broke into public view September 9, 
when a widely circulated press article based on interviews 
with officials in MFA's Africa bureau strongly criticized the 
proceedings, asserting they would jeopardize peace efforts in 
Angola and also tarnish The Hague's reputation as a center 
for international peace efforts.  At least several aspects of 
the article were inaccurate.  The MFA has not taken a formal 
position on the extradition, according to officials in both 
the MFA and the Ministry of Justice.  The article also 
asserted that Development Minister Agnes van Ardenne strongly 
opposed the extradition; van Ardenne, who is to meet with 
Department officials in Washington later this month, 
subsequently issued a public denial that she opposed the 
extradition. 
 
Informal MFA Views 
 
4.  (U) Pending instructions, Charge spoke September 14 with 
Renee Jones, Director General for Regional and Consular 
Affairs at MFA, and asked about the ministry's views.  Both 
agreed to consider the conversation preliminary and informal, 
designed only to clarify where each side stood. 
 
5.  (C) Jones said MFA had issued Bembe a visa but did not 
know at the time he was wanted for kidnapping or that he was 
the subject of an Interpol Red Notice.  MFA had vetted him 
through the criminal lists available to it, Jones said, and 
Bembe had not shown a hit.  A visa had subsequently been 
issued so that Bembe could participate in efforts by the 
Dutch NGO Kredda to advance peace talks regarding the Cabinda 
enclave of Angola.  Jones acknowledged that Bemba's 
subsequent arrest had placed MFA in "an awkward" position. 
That Bembe had been arrested at the Peace Palace had further 
complicated matters, she said, because the building 
symbolizes The Hague's role in international peace efforts. 
Jones said there was a range of opinion within MFA.  It had 
not taken a formal position on the case "yet" but might after 
hearings resume October 4.  She said some in MFA believed 
Bembe's role in the peace process should take precedence over 
our extradition request; others did not.  She also commented 
that Bembe was "not Usama bin Laden." 
 
6. (C) Charge said he could offer only his personal views 
pending instructions: We had not accused Bembe of being Usama 
bin Laden; we had accused him of kidnapping an innocent 
person then demanding a ransom.  Whatever Bembe's credentials 
as a peacemaker, if he had stuck to peacemaking he would not 
be in this predicament.  Finally, while we acknowledged the 
symbolic importance of the Peace Palace and respected The 
Hague's role as a center for international justice, harboring 
a fugitive would violate Dutch treaty obligations and would 
hardly burnish the city's reputation as a center for 
international law.  In any case, officials in Washington were 
following the case closely and with concern. 
 
7. (C) Charge and Jones agreed to stay in close contact and 
to try to prevent the case from becoming a media and 
political circus. 
 
8.  (C) Charge and global affairs officer also met September 
14 with Robert Visser, Director General for International 
Affairs at the Ministry of Justice.  He was fully aware of 
the case, and in regular contact with Jones and the MFA.  He 
recommended we avoid public comment and keep our demarches 
private.  We too agreed to remain in contact about the case. 
 
9.  (C) ACTION REQUEST:  The US Department of Justice is in 
close contact with the Dutch Ministry of Justice and we do 
not seek or require any guidance on legal aspects of the 
case.  But we would appreciate State and Justice guidance on 
whether to pursue the issue at more senior levels in MFA, and 
with what tact.  Jones' comments were helpful but not 
authoritative.  We should therefore not quote them back to 
the Dutch. 
BLAKEMAN