27200: (news) Chamberlain: Dominican-Migrant Deaths (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Post by Chamberlain

   By JOSE MONEGRO

   SANTO DOMINGO, Jan 11 (AP) -- The bodies of 24 Haitian migrants who
apparently suffocated crossing the border in a sealed truck have been found
in the Dominican Republic, police said Wednesday.
   The victims were among 69 Haitians, mostly adult men, who were driven
across the border illegally at the northern Dominican town of Dajabon, said
police spokesman Gen. Simon Diaz.
   "Preliminary investigations indicate that the Haitians suffocated in the
vehicle and that the people who transported them later disposed of the
bodies," said Diaz.
   Eleven of the bodies were found on Tuesday in La Mina de Cacheo, and 13
more bodies were found on Wednesday in Los Guayacanes, police said. Both
villages are about 230 miles northeast of the Dominican capital, Santo
Domingo.
   Police detained two Dominicans who allegedly drove the truck, Diaz said.
   Plans have been drawn up to increase the 1,000-member Dominican force
patrolling the porous 243-mile border between the Dominican Republic and
Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
   About 1 million Haitians, many of them illegal immigrants, live in the
Dominican Republic, home to 8.8 million people.
   The Dominican Republic has relied on Haitian labor for decades to cut
sugar cane, harvest coffee beans and to work in construction.
   Historic tensions have increased recently between the two nations, which
share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.
   In December, Dominican villagers burned about 20 shacks occupied by
Haitian migrants in reprisal for their alleged involvement in the killing
of a businessman. In May, the Dominican government deported at least 2,000
Haitians after the killing of a Dominican woman.