VZCZCXYZ0028
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDG #1123/01 0941411
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 041411Z APR 06
FM AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4258
INFO RUEHPU/AMEMBASSY PORT AU PRINCE PRIORITY 4192

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 001123 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM SMIG DR HA
SUBJECT: FIRST ISSUE OF DOMINICAN MFA'S POLICY MAGAZINE 
EXAMINES BILATERAL RELATIONS WITH HAITI 
 
¶1.  Summary:  Haiti is the focus of the Dominican Republic,s 
first number of a new foreign policy review released at the 
close of 2005.  Among texts are President Leonel Fernandez's 
speech at a seminar where he presented his priorities for the 
border region and other quasi-official statements. The 
Dominican official strategy for the cross-border relationship 
includes developing the border region both physically and 
socially, addressing Haitian migration through continued 
repatriations, and calling on the international community to 
take responsibility for Haiti.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  Haiti, its problems, and its effect on the Dominican 
Republic are issues that have been on the steady rise in the 
Dominican Republic since May of 2005 and now stand at the 
forefront of Dominican domestic and foreign policy.  Haiti 
and the "Haitian issue" make press headlines daily, and at 
the close of 2005 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs released 
its first foreign policy review, which it dedicated to Haiti 
and the crisis that has led Haiti to become a "failed 
state8.  The design of the first number is striking, 
featuring a color photograph, wrapping from front cover to 
back, of the grim yellow-orange gates at the Dajabon border 
crossing, with a crowd of Haitian faces waiting stoically for 
the opening. 
 
¶3.  A note from the editor explains that this quarterly 
journal is a reflection of the issues of highest interest and 
relevance to the Dominican Republic's foreign policy. The 
journal will include professional, academic, social, 
cultural, economic and political analysis, as well as 
articles and speeches by Dominican authorities. 
 
OFFICIAL POLICY 
 
¶4.  Official policy presented in various documents may be 
summarized as follows: 
The deterioration of the security situation in Haiti has 
created an environment more open to alien smuggling, drugs, 
arms, and human trafficking. As these factors threaten 
national security, the Dominican authorities stress several 
aims: 
 
-- Develop the border region both physically and socially. 
Through the creation of the Provincial Development 
Consultative Council, authorities have now identified the 
priorities for the region that the government can take on 
immediately.  The Council should be proactive and seek 
technical support from international organization to supports 
longer-term development goals that are sustainable. Its 
initiatives should also link the government to private 
sector, civil society, and the international community. 
 
-- Continue repatriations with appropriate respect to human 
rights. Historically the Dominican Republic has lacked a just 
and humane migration policy toward Haiti.  President 
Fernandez considers that mass repatriations violate human 
rights.   At the same time, he stresses that the Dominican 
Republic has a sovereign right to protect its territorial 
integrity and repatriate all foreigners who enter the country 
illegally.  This a right that is not up for discussion. 
 
-- Continue to call on the international community for 
support. Haiti cannot do it alone and the international 
community should assume responsibility with respect to Haiti 
that will help strengthen democratic institutions, stimulate 
economic growth, and respond to its social problems. 
 
-- Carry out a National Census of Foreigners. The National 
Council of Migration, established in the 2004 Migration Law, 
proposes to conduct a census of foreigners, with the proposal 
to provide residence documentation for those already in the 
country for more than 10 years. 
 
-- Reinforcing Border Protection.  Security forces are 
working to develop a plan for better enforcement of the 
border and are carrying out studies to determine points that 
are most vulnerable. 
 
-- Demarcating the Border. Haiti and the Dominican Republic 
signed an agreement to reconstruct the damaged and lost 
markers that establish the line dividing the two countries. 
This work remains to be accomplished. 
 
-- Reactivating a Bi-national Mixed Commission.  This 
mechanism will serve as a permanent venue for discussion and 
debate of the bilateral agenda. 
 
-- Provide More Resources for Diplomacy.  Strengthening the 
MFA Division of Haitian affairs will reinforce its role as a 
unit that links together government agencies to coordinate 
issues related to Haiti. 
 
 
 
¶4.  Other works presented in the foreign policy review 
include: 
 
-- Historic Perspective of Dominican-Haitian Relations by 
economist, historian, and former Ambassador to the United 
States Bernardo Vega.  An erudite but engaging review of the 
bilateral relationship, including apt and evocative 
historical and literary quotes. Vega discusses Trujillo's 
ambivalence toward Haitian leaders and stresses the breakdown 
of the government-to-government system of contracting Haitian 
laborers for sugar harvests and then repatriating them. 
 
-- The changes in Haitian Immigration and the Dispute over 
the Numbers.  Two sociologists do the numbers: the estimates 
of the resident Haitian population range from 250,000 to 2 
million.  Over the past two decades, the number has become 
difficult to determine.  Crisis in Haiti has pushed 
indivudals across the border and demand for labor in the 
Dominican Republic has pulled them.   Following the 1991 coup 
in Haiti, bilateral control arrangements fell apart, flows 
increased, and Haitian laborers became important in coffee, 
tobacco, and banana industries.  The majority of Haitians and 
Dominicans of Haitian descent are undocumented.  The 
Migration Directorate has records of only 416,737 Haitians 
living in the country as of 2003, a figure likely to be very 
far from the undetermined actual population. 
 
-- Chronology of the Political Crisis in Haiti by Ambassador 
Inocencio Garcia, head of MFA Haitian Affairs.  Factual 
account of the official view. 
 
-- Haitian Migration in the Dominican Republic: New 
Dimensions to an Old Problem by sociologist and academic Jose 
de Castillo.  Growth of the undocumented population, as 
individuals responded to a wide array of economic incentives. 
 
--Advantages and Disadvantages of a Commercial Integration 
Between the Dominican Republic and Haiti by economists 
Rolando Reyes and Adolfo Marti.  Theoretical tract. 
 
¶5.  The journal concludes with a summary of related MFA 
activities.  Embassy has sent a copy of the journal to the 
Department's Ralph Bunche Library. 
KUBISKE