President Leonel Fernández told Dominican reporters that he has instructed Minister Eduardo Latorre to formally protest the requests made to the Dominican government by the Organization of American States’ Interamerican Commission on Human Rights. The international organization has requested that the DR give all Haitian migrants living in the DR work and residency papers and nationalize their children born in the DR. The OAS also described as a flagrant violation of international human rights the deporting of illegal Haitians that reside in the DR. President Fernandez said that the document went beyond the attributions of the OAS. He said that the OAS charter does not give it the attribution to request that a sovereign government stop deporting illegal aliens. The President said that the OAS report adds a new ingredient to an issue that is strictly of a national character. He stated that the government is about to send a new Migration Bill to Congress that would modify the Migration Law in effect since 1939 and help definitely resolve the Haitian migration issue. He defended the Dominican Republic’s sovereign right to repatriate illegal aliens. He said the deportations have been carried out respecting human rights and no abuses have been reported. He said that to this date the Haitian government has not made a single complaint regarding violation of its citizen’s human rights of those being repatriated. "What the Haitian government has not done, now the OAS takes upon itself to do without evidence, without proof that there have been violations of the human rights of the repatriated Haitians," said President Fernández. The OAS document has met with widespread rejection in the DR. See yesterday’s daily news reports for several reactions to the report http://www.dr1.com/daily/news110199.shtml The Dominican consensus is that the OAS should promote international support to help Haiti develop and not provoke sterile discussions.
