Notisia Katoliko Korsou

zaterdag 9 november 2013

Call for building of border wall between the Dominican Republic and Haiti

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Wednesday November 6, 2013, CMC – Hundreds of people took to the streets in support of a controversial Constitutional Court ruling that could render stateless, thousands of persons of Haitian descent.

The demonstrators assembled opposition Independence Park in the capital carrying banners rejecting the presence of Haitians in the country and even suggesting the erection of a wall to ensure the division of Hispaniola that is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The demonstrators said the “Patriotic Meeting” was aimed at lending support to the ruling of the Constitutional Court that children born in the country of undocumented foreign parents do not have Dominican nationality.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM, as well as the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), have criticized the ruling made on September 23, with the IACHR saying that it “retroactively modifies legislation that was in effect from 1929 to 2010, and thus would strip Dominican citizenship from tens of thousands of people born in the Dominican Republic”.

CARICOM Secretary General Irwin La Rocque said the ruling “raises a serious question about the status of the numerous… Dominican Republic nationals of Haitian extract” while St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves in a letter to President Danilo Medina said the court’s decision was “unacceptable in any civilized community”.

The international human rights group, Amnesty International and the Organization of American States (OAS) have also expressed concern over the ruling and the US-based The US-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA) said the ruling had truned the Dominican Republic into a “ticking time bomb.

“Unsurprisingly, this controversial ruling has sparked global outrage. The ruling could potentially result in the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent, as well as their children, who were born in the Dominican Republic,” COHA added.

The demonstration was organized by the National Network for the Defense of Sovereignty and demonstrators sang the national anthem and waved the Dominican Republic flag.

Economist Philip Auffant Najri, who addressed the meeting, rejected what he termed the smear campaign made against the country internationally and demanded the construction of a border wall which he said would end poverty here and prevent conflict between the two nations.

He said that the lack of public policies to promote the employment of Dominicans has led many people within and outside the country, to believe that impoverished immigrant labour is indispensable for the national economy.

Another speaker, jurist Juan Manuel Castillo Pantaleon, said the Constitutional Court "has aroused all Dominicans to defend as one man our national sovereignty".

He described the ruling as a landmark and brave “because it clearly defines who we Dominicans are and reaffirms the laws and institutions, as provided in the Constitution.

"The hypocritical international community which offered aid to Haiti, never kept their promises and in some cases committed robbery, and intends that we Dominicans should assume responsibility for a failed state," said Castillo Pantaleon.

Emilo Santana of the group, Night Watch of San Juan, called on the government to build a wall along the border, adding that many communities in the area were losing their identity after being invaded illegally by Haitian immigrants.

He said many Dominicans were unable to receive proper health services because the resources were being used to assist the Haitians and urged President Medina to prevent a “silent and massive Haitian take-over of the territory.

“I feel humiliated and angry, but not by my president, I feel humiliated by those NGOs that negotiate with the poverty of Haitians and it is they who are destroying our country," said Emilio Santana.

The National Network for the Defense of Sovereignty said that the demonstration was a reaction to the continuous attacks promoted by the Haitian government "and the traitors that act against our nation on the occasion of the judgment 168-13 of the Constitutional Court"