27638: Hermantin(News)Village becomes a beehive of trade (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Fri, Feb. 10, 2006


BORDER COMMERCE
Village becomes a beehive of trade
One of the border points between the Dominican Republic and Haiti opens every 
Friday and Monday, to virtually anyone with something to sell or a need to buy.
BY FRANCES ROBLES
frobles@MiamiHerald.com

DAJABON, Dominican Republic - It's 5:30 a.m., and already Creole voices can be 
heard through the darkness, just above the sound of the swishing of the 
knee-high water that separates the Dominican Republic from Haiti.

As others wade through the river, one Haitian man waiting to import fighting 
cocks to Haiti has arrived at the Dominican side of the border 2 ½ hours before 
it opens. A customs worker is shaking him down for taxes.

''You don't want to pay?'' customs employee José Torres shouted when Yoel 
Lluasa refused to shell out the $3 he demanded. ``Let's see if I don't hit you 
with a stick, lock you up and seize your roosters! You're an animal!''

60,000 CROSSINGS

In three more hours the little bridge that divides Haiti and the Dominican 
Republic will be chaos, a mad rush of merchants, shoppers on same-day visits 
and people whose real plan is to slip into the Dominican Republic for good. As 
it struggles to stem a tide of illegal immigration from Haiti, it grapples with 
a thorny reality: Twice a week, the border here opens for trade and absolutely 
anybody can pass with ease.

A Spanish soldier posted there with U.N. peacekeepers deployed in Haiti said he 
once counted up to 60,000 border-crossings from the Haitian town of Ouanaminthe 
in a single day.

''It must be the only place in the world with a border like that, where 
thousands of people rush by without anybody checking their papers,'' said 
attorney general Francisco Domínguez Brito. ``What border? I say we don't have 
one.''

At 8 a.m. one recent morning, no one could find the key to the border gate. 
Thousands of Haitians pressed up against the gate as others tried slipping into 
the water, this time being stopped by Dominican soldiers.

The doors finally swung open a half-hour late, letting in thousands of Haitians 
carrying merchandise on their heads -- mostly new shoes and toys donated from 
other countries. Others charge by with empty wheelbarrows they'll need to carry 
their purchases.

`MARKET OF ILLEGALS'

Lluasa finally gets through with his roosters, without having paid the extra 
''fee'' requested. Dominican soldiers grab the Haitian women, poking at their 
sacks to make sure they are not smuggling contraband: rice.

''This is a market of illegals,'' said Dajabón Gov. Sonia Mateo Espinosa. ``We 
allow them to come here and buy food. They are children of God, and we cannot 
deny them bread.''

Mateo Espinosa runs down the ills: streets clogged with immigrants, people 
defecating and urinating in the streets. The international community promised 
to build a new market with toilets, she said, but Dajabón, a town of 14,500 
people, has yet to see it.