Cablegate: Spain Registers Concern with Human Rights Report

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

061046Z Apr 05

UNCLAS MADRID 001308

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PREL SP
SUBJECT: SPAIN REGISTERS CONCERN WITH HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT

1. The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested a
meeting to discuss GOS concerns with this year's Human Rights
Report. Poloffs met March 29 with Manuel de la Camara
Hermoso, MFA Deputy Director of North American Affairs, and
Jose Antonio de Ory Peral, MFA Director General of Human
Rights. De la Camara and de Ory emphasized that they
respected the USG human rights reports that the USG produced
and they found the reports "fair and balanced" but were
concerned that this year the report's tone was slightly more
negative with respect to Spain than in previous years. They
presented poloffs with a non-paper detailing GOS concerns
about the report. We faxed a copy of the non-paper to EUR/WE
on March 30. We told our interlocutors we would relay the
GOS's concerns to Washington.

2. Most of the concerns consist of slight changes in
descriptive language from the previous year's human rights
report. For example, a phrase from the 2003 Human Rights
Report for Spain that states, "There were allegations a few
members of the security forces abused detainees and
mistreated foreigners and illegal immigrants." The 2004 Human
Rights Report adds the word "credible" before "allegations."

3. The GOS was also concerned about the mention of the
government closing the Basque newspaper, Euskalunon
Egunkaria, because of its links to ETA in the 2004 report.
The February 2003 closing of the newspaper was first reported
in the 2003 Human Rights Report for Spain. The 2004 Human
Rights Report for Spain mentions three additional four-month
extensions of the newspaper's closing. De la Camara and de
Ory called this reporting erroneous because the paper was
closed by a court order and not the executive branch of the
Spanish government, which in their view means it was not
closed by "the government."

MANZANARES

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