#4145: DR politians statements on HaiTi (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Yacine Khelladi <yacine@aacr.net>

 
DR1 Daily News -- Thursday, 8 June 2000
> 4. Senate urges UN help Haiti
> The Senate requested the intervention of the United Nations, and the
> OAS and other international community organizations to avoid an end to
> the incipient democracy in Haiti. The Senate joins the plea made
> recently by US Congressmen Benjamin Gilman and Porter Goss that
> recently alerted that the recent congressional election in Haiti could
> result in the creation of a narco-state in Haiti. The Republican
> congressmen affirmed that the Haitian electoral authorities and the
> Organizacion Familia Lavalas of former president Jean Bertrand
> Aristide are manipulating the results of the 21 May election in favor
> of that organization.
> Meanwhile, Danilo Díaz, head of the Department of Migration says that
> international non-government organizations instead of seeking
> international support to condemn the DR for violations of rights of
> Haitians in the DR should commend the country to allowing so many
> Haitians to find work here, offering free public health services to
> thousands of Haitians and allowing informal commerce, such as market
> days along the frontier.
> "Never before as now have the rights of illegal Haitians been
> respected in the DR," said Díaz. "Never before had agreements been
> reached in migration issues", he said mentioning advances in talks by
> the bilateral committee. He said that the government of Haiti needs to
> move on making real commitments to establish migration posts,
> increasing the number of frontier personnel and providing
> identification documents to its citizens.
> "What happens is that Haitians do not register, they do not get a
> birth certificate, not even an ID card which creates major problems as
> from the legal point of view they have not been born," said Díaz. He
> said this complicates matters, as it does not permit DR authorities to
> place them in a migration category that may offer them the possibility
> of regularizing their judicial status.
> He said the DR has been an international spokesman for Haiti
> requesting international support for the development of infrastructure
> in Haiti that may reduce the economic pressures that make so many
> Haitians migrate.
> "The DR is the country that pays the highest price and maintains the
> highest quota of solidarity with the sister Republic of Haiti, and
> provide most jobs, trade and facilities for health," he said.
> 
> DR1 Daily News -- Tuesday, 6 June 2000
> ********************************************************************
> 
> 5. Urgent, construction of International Hospital
> El Siglo newspaper brings back the request for international community
> assistance to build and fund an International Hospital at the frontier
> with Haiti. The hospital would primarily serve Haitian citizens that
> are crossing over to receive services at Dominican public hospitals.
> Services are free and by far superior in Dominican public hospitals,
> thus the number of Haitian women crossing over is increasing every
> day.
> El Siglo newspaper editorial says that the DR cannot absorb the
> medical costs of the seven million population of Haiti as well as its
> own. Says that already Dominican frontier public hospitals are
> attending the same number of Haitians as Dominicans.
> A solution would be to foster the construction of an international
> hospital to assist indigent Haitians.
> Discussion comes after a Migration Bill includes an article to ban
> public hospitals from assisting Haitian women that come to give birth
> in the DR. The denial of services has met with rejection of almost all
> sectors in the DR, from the director of the Migration Department to
> women's organizations.
> The construction of an International Hospital, that would receive
> funding from abroad, and would be staffed by Dominican physicians
> would be a welcome solution as Haitian women could continue to enjoy
> good medical services without this becoming a major burden on the
> Dominican government.