26745: Arthur (news) Dominican Republic: Haitians under attack (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: haitisupport@gn.apc.org


Dominican Republic: Haitians under attack

By Charles Arthur, Latinamerica Press - 1 December 2005

For decades, right-wing elements in the Dominican Republic have periodically
stoked up racial tensions between the people who inhabit the twin-state island
of Hispaniola. Every few years, the Dominican Army is deployed to round up and
deport thousands of Haitians who have crossed the porous border in search of a
living.

Since May this year, another round of forced deportations has been underway, but
this time, human rights organizations are raising the alarm about a noticeable
increase in anti-Haitian attitudes, often encouraged by official statements,
and most worrying of all, accompanied by a series of violent attacks on
Haitians and Dominico-Haitians that have left many dead and injured.

The attacks are raising concerns about the possibility of a repeat of the
notorious 1937 massacre, when the Dominican dictator, General Rafael Trujillo,
ordered his troops to drive out Haitians living on the Dominican side of the
border. More than 25,000 people are believed to have died.

Today between 500,000 and one million Haitians live in the Dominican Republic,
having crossed over the 243-mile (391-kilometer) border in recent decades. Many
of them are undocumented - living in the Dominican Republic without residency
permits. They find work in the host country's tourism, construction, and
agricultural sectors.

Nobody knows for sure how many Haitians or Dominicans of Haitian descent have
been killed in recent months. Haitian human rights organizations say the
murderous attacks that began in May are claiming scores of victims.

The Dominican authorities deny that anything out of the ordinary is occurring,
and claim that non-governmental organizations are exaggerating the situation.
In September, Dominican president Leonel Fernandez told reporters that if
murders were taking place, then it was an inevitable consequence of poverty in
the border regions, and nothing to do with race.

But frequent Dominican media reports, and alerts issued by Haitian and Dominican
human rights organizations, suggest that worsening racial tensions in the
Dominican Republic are continuing to claim lives.

Two recent reports in Dominican newspapers provide an example of the incidents
that have been occurring with increasing frequency over the last six months.

On 6 November, Yan Luis, a 28-year old Haitian living in Bàvaro, Higuey, a town
in north-western Dominican Republic, was shot dead by the owner of a bar.
Eyewitnesses told El Nacional newspaper Luis had ignored the proprietor's
demand that he leave the premises.

Three days later, Fineló Pie was killed when he and a group of eight other
Haitians were attacked by a crowd of Dominicans near the community of Agua
Santa, in the Dominican province of Dajabón, also in the north-west. Reporting
the murder, El Caribe newspaper provided scant detail about the attack, but
stated that the group of Haitians from the hamlet of Dosmó, near the Haitian
town of Fort Liberté, had recently crossed the border on foot.

Earlier, in late August, more than 13 Haitian and Dominico-Haitian people were
killed in just two weeks, including three young Haitian men who were tied up,
doused with flammable liquid and then set on fire. They died from their wounds
a few days later.

The current situation began to worsen following the murder - allegedly by
Haitian immigrants - of a Dominican merchant in the town of Hatillo Palma in
the north-western department of Montecristi on 9 May. In response, groups armed
with machetes and sticks began attacking people believed to be Haitians.
Properties were looted and set on fire in a number of localities. During the
pogroms, Dominicans attacked a group of Haitians sleeping in a small house,
beheading two of them and seriously wounding two more.

In the days that followed, hundreds of Haitian immigrants fled the persecution,
and crossed the border into Haiti at Dajabón-Ouanaminthe. Then in subsequent
weeks, the Dominican Army started rounding up people believed to be Haitians
and forcibly deported them. During May and June as many as 4,000 people were
forced out of the Dominican Republic into Haiti, and thousands more have been
deported since then.

The Dominican authorities say they need to carry out the deportations because
the country is being overwhelmed by immigrants. Human rights organizations
respond that the mass deportations do nothing to resolve the social or
econonomic tensions connected to immigration, and in fact only make the
situation worse. They also charge that the deportations involve serious
violations of people's rights.

Commenting on the recent deportations, the Dominican Advisory and Legal Research
Center (CEDAIL) - an organization established by the Dominican Catholic Church
to help protect immigrants' rights - criticized the "indiscriminate and
anti-democratic" repatriations of Haitians.

In a 27 May press release, CEDAIL noted that Haitian immigrants do jobs that
most Dominicans refuse to consider, stressing that while the Dominican State
has every right to regulate its borders and take measures against immigration,
it also owes "a great social debt to the Haitian migrant population, which
makes important contributions to the Dominican economy...working under
conditions that citizens reject."

Human rights activists say the recent wave of deportations are all the more
worrying, because they have been accompanied by statements by public officials
that are encouraging a climate of xenophobia against Haitians and
Dominico-Haitians.

For example, in mid-May, José Ramón Fadúl, the Dominican Secretary of State for
Labour, stated that he supported "cleansing the area of foreign workers in
conformity with the law". Then, in August, Armed Forces Minister, Sigfrido
Pared, stated that the continual immigration of Haitians is "an attack" on the
Dominican Republic's sovereignty.

In September, a Dominican organization known as the National Committee for
Migrations, composed of a number of civil society organizations, responded by
accusing some politicians and journalists of "stoking" and "inciting" racial
hatred against Haitians.

Colette Lespinasse, the coordinator of the Haitian platform to support refugees
and repatriated people (GARR), denounced the recent forced deportations and
attacks, saying the situation amounted to "ethnic cleansing."


National Committee for Migrations = La Mesa Nacional para las Migraciones de
República Dominicana
CEDAIL = Centro Dominicano de Asesoria e Investigaciones Legales
GARR = El Grupo de Apoyo a Refugiados y Repatriados


Latinamerica Press is a biweekly (fortnightly) journal of information and
analysis about events in Latin America and the Caribbean, focusing on the human
rights (political, economic, social and cultural) of excluded and marginalized
sectors of the population within the region.

Also available in Spanish: Noticias Aliadas.




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