Sonya Reines-Djivanides, the woman who spilled UN secrets to Morocco

Hastily, she went out to write an email to a Moroccan secret service agent to spill the secrets of a meeting of think thanks and experts of the UN Group of Western Sahara confined to them by UN special envoy Christopher Ross in order to design some guidelines to help resolve the dispute in Western Sahara. The leaked email was sent on December 8th, 2010, when Sonya Reines was the Director of “Search For Common Grounds” Bruxelles headquarters, and the email recipient was the Moroccan informer and media group owner Ahmed Charai, who in the following day forwarded it to Yassin Mansouri, the boss of DGED, Morocco external intelligence service . (See email below)

Sonya Reines-Djivanides representing SFCG, Search For Common Grounds, was called to take part in the meeting of experts and think thanks to analyze and outline recommendations to Western Sahara special envoy, Mr. Christopher Ross to help him draw a roadmap before the two conflicting opponents at the negotiating table to resolve the long protracted colonial dispute over Western Sahara. The mission outcomes, thus, were not supposed to reach the two belligerents, Morocco or the Polisario Front.

However, Sonya Reines leaked the closed meeting outcomes to Ahmed Charai. More than that, and as mentioned in the email, she asked for a personal meeting to debrief him on the meeting and talk about the next step. She, undoubtedly, was seeking to get the Moroccan state official vision so as to pinpoint it in her NGO’s report during the coming debates of experts and think thanks whose final report was due to be submitted to Christopher Ross before December 16th of the same month, the date of the resumption of Manhasset negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario Front, Western Sahara internationally recognized representative.

Sonya Reines, thus, committed a serious ethical violation against the trust put on her by Christopher Ross, the UN representative to Western Sahara.

A year later in December 4th, 2011, Ahmed Charai, this same Moroccan intelligence agent, would be intercepted by the International Airport of Washington customs service in possession of about 20 thousands dollars, a sum of money that he didn’t declare, and thus was accused of “false declaration of a significant amount of money”. His release was bailed out by Morocco state through other special channels. 

It is quite obvious that Sonya Reines’ move to divulge secret information to Ahmed Charai and calling him to come over to the US was in counter part of personal material gains betraying the very founding principals ethics of her NGO, Search For Common Grounds, and the trustworthiness of the party hiring her consultancy.

Currently, Sonya Reines-Djivanides is the executive director of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO), an independent platform of NGOs and think tanks committed to the prevention of violent conflict. According to its official website, EPLO aims to influence the EU so that it promotes and implements measures which lead to sustainable peace between states and within states and peoples, and which transform and resolve conflicts non-violently.

In similar cables laid online by the mysterious Chris Coleman, other high profiled journalists, distinguished diplomats and many other personalities have been the subject matter of scandalous revelations. The cables that subsequently have been authenticated by professional experts.

It is worth mentioning that we tried to join Sonya Reines Djivanedes to comment on theses cables but suddenly her twitter account has been locked, as well that of EPLO. 

Khalil Asmar