26892: (news) Chamberlain: Dominican Republic demands apology from Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Manuel Jimenez

     SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The Dominican
Republic has demanded an apology from Haiti over violent protests that
disrupted a visit to the neighboring country earlier this week by Dominican
President Leonel Fernandez.
     Stone-throwing Haitians branded Fernandez a racist and criminal in a
demonstration outside the presidential palace in Port-au-Prince on Monday,
as they denounced what human rights groups describe as rampant abuses
committed against Haitians living in the Dominican Republic.
     Witnesses said several protesters were injured in clashes with riot
police, including two by bullets. The Dominican president's bodyguards
fired warning shots during the melee while his vehicle left the National
Palace.
     Fernandez himself acknowledged that Haitian immigrants have been
victims of abuse on the part of people he called "extremists." He promised
his government would do all it can to end the abuses.
     But the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of
Hispaniola and a long history of mutual distrust with Haiti, demanded an
apology nonetheless.
     "The foreign ministry, in the name of the Dominican government, is
expecting a formal apology from Haitian authorities for the acts of
violence and vandalism in the neighboring country directed against
President Leonel Fernandez and the Dominican people," the ministry said in
a statement late on Tuesday.
     Human rights groups say Haitians who cross the border to the Dominican
Republic -- many illegally as they look for jobs and refuge from their
homeland's dire poverty -- have been attacked and killed by Dominican mobs.
They allege that Dominican authorities condone the behavior.
     Adding to tensions between the two countries, officials from the
United Nations and Organization of American States said last month that
about 30,000 Haitian children are smuggled into the Dominican Republic
every year to work as child prostitutes or be forced into other degrading
occupations.
     The Dominican government in October rejected a ruling by the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights ordering it to provide Haitians born
in the Dominican Republic with Dominican birth certificates.