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DE RUEHDG #0273/01 0252048
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P 252048Z JAN 06
FM AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO
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UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000273 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR WHA, WHA/CAR, INR/IAA; USSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD; 
TREASURY FOR OASIA-J LEVINE; 
USDOC FOR 4322/ITA/MAC/WH/CARIBBEAN BASIN DIVISION; 
USDOC FOR 3134/ITA/USFCS/RD/WH; DHS FOR CIS-CARLOS ITURREGUI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL HA DR PHUM
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN POLITICS II #16: FERNANDEZ WARNS OF 
"BALKANIZATION" BY HAITIAN IMMIGRANTS 
 
REF: SANTO DOMINGO 168 
 
¶1.  (SBU) This is the 16th cable in a series reporting on the 
second year of the administration of Dominican president 
Leonel Fernandez. 
 
(The President's remarks on "balkanization" reflect the 
Dominican obsession with the thorny issue of dealing with 
Haitian migrants; ugly incidents suggest that tensions remain 
high.) 
 
Fernandez Warns of "Balkanization" by Haitian Immigrants 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
Dominican sensitivities about Haitian migration have been 
acute in the tense aftermath of the suffocation deaths of 25 
Haitian immigrants who were being smuggled into the Dominican 
Republic hidden in the back of a truck in early January and a 
riot at the border that left two persons dead when 
authorities tried to repatriate the bodies.  President 
Fernndez devoted part of his annual address to Dominican 
chiefs of mission at the Foreign Ministry January 13 to the 
government's views on "the massive illegal migration" of 
Haitians into the country.  The speech was reasoned but firm. 
 
Fernndez called for improving "the treatment and the quality 
of life" of Haitian workers and respecting their human 
rights, while emphasizing the country's sovereign right to 
repatriate illegal immigrants and to define the legal basis 
for granting Dominican nationality. 
 
Speaking more generally, the President called for great care 
in determining migration policy, to avoid a risk of 
balkanization and territorial fragmentation that could result 
from settlement by Haitians of "certain portions of the 
national territory" -- implicitly referring to the legacy in 
the country of dozens of bateyes (communities of Haitian 
workers and their descendants).  Fernandez stated that there 
was no xenophobia or prejudice against Haitians here. 
 
He called for a "great debate" on whether or not to reform 
the Dominican constitution, which establishes birth on 
Dominican soil (jus solis) as the main rule for granting 
citizenship, with citizenship by blood (jus sanguinis) being 
an exception under some circumstances.  Fernandez said that 
there was no reason to compare the Dominican legal regime on 
acquisition of nationality to that of the United States. 
 
In raising the specter of "balkanization," Fernandez touched 
a particularly sensitive nerve.  Beyond the implications of 
ethnic discrimination and strife, which many Dominicans 
reject as uncharacteristic of their country, are longstanding 
Dominican anxieties that the international community might 
intervene on this side of the border to prevent the 
mistreatment of Haitian immigrants.  Some even believe that 
such an intervention would seek to unify both sides of the 
island into a single state. 
 
Reaction 
- - - - - - - 
 
Reaction reported in the media was mixed.  Catholic Church 
leaders in particular adopted a more conciliatory tone.  The 
parish priest of Dajabon on the Dominican-Haitian border and 
others found that the comparison with ethnic conflict in the 
Balkans magnified the problem unnecessarily.  Head of the 
civic NGO FINJUS Servio Tulio Castanos agreed, commenting 
that the problem would reach Balkan proportions with another 
 
25 years of migration.   Head of the Dominican Bishops' 
Conference Msgr. Ramon de la Rosa y Carpio called for 
dialogue between his country and Haiti.  The bishops' annual 
pastoral letter, published January 20,  advocated the defense 
of the rights of all persons against any sort of 
discrimination, but also called for application of clear 
legal solutions in the face of growing undocumented Haitian 
immigration. 
 
Opposition political figures took the government to task for 
a failure to control the border or implement effective 
migration policy.  A spokesman for a leading NGO on legal 
matters noted pointedly that "the government has in its hands 
a legal instrument to solve the problem"-- the 2004 Migration 
Law, for which draft implementing regulations are pending. 
 
Editorialists complained of the complicity of Dominican 
businesses and public officials in the importation of illegal 
migrants as cheap labor for the agriculture, construction, 
and tourist industries.  Diario Libre put it bluntly:  "The 
problem is us."  The paper advocated hiring Haitians and 
their descendants who are already in the Dominican Republic, 
rather than bringing in additional migrants.  In a January 13 
statement the resident representative of the International 
Organization for Migration condemned the corruption and 
impunity of border control personnel and called the deaths of 
the 25 immigrants  "the tip of the iceberg" of trafficking in 
persons across the border. 
 
Managing the Reaction 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
In subsequent remarks, President Fernandez spoke of Dominican 
"feelings of solidarity and admiration for Haiti," and three 
days later he dismissed journalists' questions about the 
possibility of confrontation or armed conflict between the 
two nations.  "Wherever countries share a common border, 
there are tensions and difficulties.  The important thing is 
for the authorities to have a desire to overcome those 
issues." 
 
On January 22 erroneous rumors about the murder of a 
Dominican air force sergeant prompted a rampage against 
Haitians in the low-income neighborhood of Guerra, near the 
capital.  Dominican vigilantes burned the homes of as many as 
30 mostly Haitian families and injured at least 10 persons, 
according to the press.  In fact, the sergeant had been 
killed by a Dominican policeman. 
 
Security forces continue routine repatriations, deporting 
hundreds of undocumented Haitians a week in a continuation of 
operations begun previouisly. 
 
In their report to the President about the smuggling deaths, 
the Interior Minister, Armed Forces chief and Director of 
Migration identified as responsible parties three Dominican 
civilian traffickers and seven low-ranking Dominican soldiers 
at the border who had accepted 200 pesos each (USD 7) to 
allow the truck to pass.  Another five Dominican civilians 
and two Haitian civilians were also implicated.  The soldiers 
are to be punished for bad conduct under military law and 
then turned over to civilian justice.  The report noted that 
the "extreme and challenging" conditions encountered by the 
victims were not very different from those faced by other 
Haitians trying to enter the Dominican Republic.  Authorities 
said that investigations would continue. 
 
¶2.  (U) Drafted by Bainbridge Cowell. 
 
¶3.  (U) This piece and others in our series can be consulted 
at our SIPRNET web site 
(http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo)  along with 
extensive other material. 
HERTELL