18818: (Chamberlain) Dominican-Haiti-Rebels (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PETER PRENGAMAN

   DAJABON, Dominican Republic, Feb 19 (AP) -- Suspicion and tension are
rife in the desolate hills along this sparsely guarded border, where armed
Haitian rebels have returned from the Dominican Republic to join a growing
revolt in their homeland.
   Haiti's government on Wednesday sought an explanation as to how
Dominican troops could have allowed rebels through, reviving old
hostilities between the neighbors on the island of Hispaniola.
   "We are asking ourselves how they (armed rebels) could cross the border
without the complicity of the Dominican army?" Haitian government spokesman
Mario Dupuy said in Port-au-Prince.
   In recent days an exiled police chief and ex-leader of a paramilitary
group reportedly came across the border, according to witnesses who saw
them with a group of some 20 armed commandoes in the rebel-held city of
Gonaives.
   The Dominican army said it had no knowledge of rebels crossing with
guns, and residents in the border town of Dajabon said they hadn't seen any
armed convoy.
   Patrols are rare along much of the 225-mile border, which runs through
hills and along the Rio Masacre, a river sometimes shallow enough to walk
across.
   Bribes are common at a riverside border fence in Dajabon, where Haitian
workers slip Dominican soldiers less than $1 each to cross.
   A long history of wars and immigration have made relations tense. In
1937, Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered his country cleansed of
Haitians, and thousands were massacred.
   The current uprising against Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
has begun to raise tensions once again since fighting broke out Feb. 5.
Some 60 people have been killed.
   The Dominican military is investigating who ambushed and killed two
soldiers Saturday in a remote border area near Dajabon, the main crossing
185 miles northwest of the capital, Santo Domingo.
   One soldier's wife, 20-year-old Carolina Gonzalez, said she has
suspicions it was Haitians who committed the murders.
   "The Haitians are the ones who've brought the misfortune to our
country," she said. "They've already come to take our jobs, but this makes
me more bitter."
   Others suggest the rebels likely crossed farther south and that the
killings could be the work of bandits.
   In another sign of tension, hundreds of pamphlets were circulated in
border towns this week with the title "Haitian Liberation Front," and
threatening in Spanish: "Dominicans treat us like beastly slaves. Their
farms, houses, women and children will soon be ours!" The source of the
fliers was unclear.
   Dominicans often complain about the flow of illegal Haitian immigrants.
More than 1 million Haitians are estimated to live in the Dominican
Republic, most cutting sugar cane or doing other low-paying jobs.
   On Monday, several Haitians who crossed over were beaten, cut with
machetes and robbed by Dominicans, said the Rev. Regino Martinez, a Jesuit
priest. He said soldiers nearby didn't intervene. Because the border is
often unmarked, he said, "you can be in Haiti or the Dominican Republic and
not know it."
   Haitian rebel leaders who reportedly have crossed from the Dominican
Republic include Guy Philippe, an ex-police chief accused of planning a
2001 coup attempt, and Louis-Jodel Chamblain, who helped lead a militia
blamed for killing hundreds during a 1991-1994 military dictatorship.
   Witnesses said Chamblain led some 50 rebels who seized the central city
of Hinche on Monday, killing the police chief and two officers.
   Dominican army chief Gen. Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez denied any weapons
were being sent across to Haiti and President Hipolito Mejia has said his
government would arrest any Haitian coup plotters.
   But Mejia previously refused to turn over Philippe, who was accused of
helping plot a Dec. 17, 2001, attack on Haiti's National Palace that left
10 dead. Philippe was in the Dominican Republic at the time.