30298: (news) Chamberlain: Dominican-Haiti-Activist (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By JONATHAN M. KATZ

   SANTO DOMINGO, March 30 (AP) -- Dominican officials are seeking to
revoke the citizenship of an internationally recognized advocate for their
country's Haitian minority.
   The move is seen by human rights groups as an attempt to silence a vocal
critic of the government.
   A report by the Dominican Central Electoral Commission concluded that
activist Sonia Pierre shouldn't be entitled to a Dominican birth
certificate and citizenship because her mother and stepfather allegedly
lied about their legal status when they registered her birth in 1963.
   Pierre, who was born in the Dominican Republic to Haitian parents, heads
the Santo Domingo-based Movement for Dominican Women of Haitian Descent, an
advocacy group for the 500,000 to 1 million ethnic Haitians who live in the
Dominican Republic.
   The Dominican Republic's Haitian population includes people who have
been in the country for generations as well as shorter-term migrants who
came to work on construction sites and sugar plantations for little pay,
often facing discrimination.
   Haiti and the Dominican Republic are located on the Caribbean island of
Hispaniola. The Haitian side is much poorer and more politically unstable.
   A four-page report prepared by Chief Inspector Juan Tavarez and Security
Director Victor Lantigua found that information on Pierre's birth
certificate was false.
   They recommended that the government "petition to nullify (the birth
certificate and citizenship) by judicial means."
   The report was requested by an electoral commission delegate from the
far right-wing National Progressive Force.
   Pierre told The Associated Press on Friday that her citizenship is
legitimate.
   "I consider this a response to the work I do for human rights," she
said. "I am open to an investigation by the authorities of my country ...
but it must be someone competent and impartial."
   The Washington-based Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, which gave Pierre its
2006 Human Rights Award, expressed concern that report could lead to
Pierre's deportation and action against other Dominicans of Haitian
descent.
   Monika Kalra Varma, acting director for the memorial's Center for Human
Rights, said Pierre recently received death threats and Varma urged
President Leonel Fernandez to halt the commission action.
   The Dominican constitution guarantees citizenship to those born within
the country's borders except for "foreigners in transit" -- a status
applied almost solely to Haitian migrants -- and the children of diplomats.
   Pierre was on the legal team that won citizenship and damages for two
Dominican-born girls of Haitian descent in a case brought before the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2005.
   This month, the Dominican government complied with the first part of the
court ruling, paying $22,000 in damages to the plaintiffs.
   But Fernandez said he did not intend to comply with the court's broader
ruling to grant citizenship to all migrants' Dominican-born children.
   That payment, along with a March report by Amnesty International
condemning the Dominican government for its treatment of migrants, has
raised tensions over the divisive issue in this nation of 9.2 million.