25109: (news) Chamberlain: Dominican Republic expels Haitians after murder (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Manuel Jimenez

     SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, May 16 (Reuters) - The Dominican
Republic has expelled as many as 2,500 Haitian immigrants after a
storekeeper was hacked to death and police arrested four Haitians,
government and church officials told local media on Monday.
     The Dominican authorities launched large raids on Friday on cattle
ranches and farms which employ thousands of low-paid migrants from
island-neighbor Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas.
     Brig. Gen. Pedro Antonio Caceres, an army commander in the border
zone, told local newspapers that as of Sunday 1,800 Haitians had been
repatriated. A Catholic priest, the Rev. Regino Martinez, of the border
town of Dajabon, said the numbers had passed 2,500.
     The expulsions were prompted by the murder last week of businesswoman
Maritza Nunez in Hatillo Palma, 166 miles (270 km) northwest of the capital
Santo Domingo. Police arrested four Haitians in the crime who had been
accused by local residents of hacking Nunez with machetes.
     Local residents formed a lynch mob after the crime, burning down the
homes and possessions of Haitian migrants. The Dominican military took
control of security in Hatillo Palma to restore order, and four Haitian
suspects were detained.
     Many Dominicans look down on Haitians, and their relationship was
forever scarred by the 1937 massacre of up to 30,000 Haitian migrants in a
campaign ordered by Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. Haitian sugar-cane
cutters were rounded up by troops, loaded onto trucks and marched off
cliffs at gunpoint to die in the sea.
     The immigration raids and deportations were launched on the orders of
President Leonel Fernandez on the grounds that Haitians were at risk
following the outburst of public anger.
     Haiti, still trying to recover from an armed revolt early last year
that toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, closed the border on
Saturday at the town of Juana Mendez in protest.