25359: (news) Chamberlain: Dominican-Haitian Killings (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By PETER PRENGAMAN

   HATILLO PALMA, Dominican Republic, June 10 (AP) -- Vela Pie pokes her
head out of a wooden tool shed before emerging slowly, afraid for her life
after seeing two fellow Haitians beheaded with machetes.
   The assailants attacked a group of Haitian farm workers while they slept
in wooden shacks in this northwestern agricultural town of 8,000. Residents
and authorities believe they were seeking revenge for the killing of a
Dominican woman, allegedly by Haitians.
   "They arrived at night and started shooting in the air, saying they were
guards," said Pie, 68, hiding on the property of friendly Dominicans. "When
people walked outside, the men started swinging their machetes."
   Hundreds of Haitians have fled or been forcibly repatriated since
Monday's attacks, while others like Pie have gone into hiding. Many had
arrived last weekend to work in banana fields during the June harvest.
   Attacks, counterattacks and repatriations are common along the poorly
patrolled Haitian-Dominican border -- the legacy of a long history of
animosity between the two impoverished countries that share the Caribbean
island of Hispaniola. Between 500,000 and 1 million Haitians live in the
Dominican Republic, doing farm and construction work for meager wages. Most
are here illegally.
   In the most notorious bloodbath, Dominican dictator Gen. Rafael Trujillo
ordered his country cleansed of Haitians in 1937, and soldiers and citizens
slaughtered at least 20,000 of them, most sugar cane workers. The Massacre
River dividing the two countries ran with blood.
   The May 9 killing of the Dominican woman prompted the government to
expel more than 2,000 Haitians, while some Dominicans went on a rampage in
Haitian ghettos, burning dozens of shacks.
   "We want all the Haitians out," said Mercedes Perez, a 63-year-old
housewife who lived next door to the slain Dominican woman. "Fear keeps us
from sleeping at night."
   Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has been mired in
political upheaval for decades, and most of the population is unemployed.
Hundreds of people have been killed in fighting between politically aligned
gangs, police and U.N. peacekeepers since the February 2004 ouster of
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
   But Haitian migrants are considered an overwhelming burden in the
Dominican Republic, whose own citizens flee poverty by the thousands each
year, risking dangerous sea voyages on rickety boats to the nearby U.S.
territory of Puerto Rico.
   Still, authorities in Hatillo Palma said Dominican farmers need the
cheap labor that Haitians provide. Haitians work for $5.35 a day in banana
fields, while Dominicans will not accept less than $10.70, Mayor Jacelyne
Espinal said.
   After the May attack, Dominican soldiers repatriated all but a handful
of the Haitians living in Hatillo Palma, Espinal said.
   Desperate for labor for the June harvest, banana farmers brought in
about 400 Haitians last weekend. Their arrival may have provoked Monday's
attack, Espinal said.
   Most banana workers have since fled or been repatriated, despite the
Dominican Republic's promise last month to stop mass expulsions following
talks between the countries' foreign ministers.
   Ramon Urena, an immigration official in charge of Haitian affairs in the
northern zone, said repatriating Haitians after attacks helps prevent
bloody reprisals.
   "We had to get Haitians out to avoid lynchings in Hatillo Palma and
other towns," Urena told television station Cadena de Noticias.
   Police said they arrested five Dominicans in Monday's attacks, but no
one has been detained in the Dominican woman's slaying.
   Some banana farmers have hired guards to protect the few dozen Haitians
still working the fields. Others say they will not hire more Haitians.
   "It's no longer worth it," said Jose Miguel, the administrator of a farm
that once employed 150 Haitians.