No date has been set for the third meeting in the current round of high-level bilateral talks between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. While they had initially been set for the first Monday of the month, at the Monday, 3 February meeting the March date was set for Wednesday 12, in Haiti. But now Minister of Interior and Police Jose Ramon Fadul says that although they are working on the agenda, it is unlikely that they will meet on the 12th. As reported in El Nuevo Diario, Fadul said that since this involves talks between two parties “sometimes we are prepared, but they (the Haitians) are not.”
He said that Presidency Minister Gustavo Montalvo is coordinating the next meeting with the Haitian authorities.
Fadul said that the government is still working on the naturalization bill that will be presented to Congress.
The minister confirmed reports that the Haitian government had impeded the entry of Dominican farm products to Haiti on Friday, 28 February, but said it was not in reprisal for the government’s delay in submitting the bill, originally set for the 27 of February opening of Congress. The minister said he was not aware of the Haitians notifying the Dominican government prior to stopping the entrance of some products, as had been established in the joint statement after the second meeting.
“No one has to tell us what we have to do with a bill or not, that is a commitment that the President of the Republic took on, to send a bill when it is ready to the National Congress, but it is not an imposition by Haiti or anyone else. That is our prerogative and we know that we have to send the naturalization bill or whatever to fill in a void there is between the Constitutional Ruling 168-13 of the Constitutional Court and the Legalization Plan,” he said. Fadul went on to say that several government departments were discussing the bill in order to ensure that it is as polished as possible before being sent to Congress.
Fadul said that a meeting with former Haitian consul in the Dominican Republic Edwin Paraison had been postponed. One of the issues for discussion at the meeting was to be the controversial Taking Our Territory (TNT) campaign. Paraison suspended the meeting explaining he had commitments in Haiti.
In a commentary published in acento.com.do last week, Paraison denied that the campaign was about the fusion of the island of Hispaniola and said that TNT was an evangelical group.
But the president of the Council of Evangelical Churches (CODUE), Fidel Lorenzo said that the TNT campaign was not an evangelical initiative and called on former consul Paraison to clarify the campaign’s true intentions to the Dominican people.
Minister of Defense Sigrido Pared Perez has said that if it is a religious group, it should be called “Taking our Faith,” not “our Territory.” He described it as “a confrontation with the Dominican Republic.”
www.elcaribe.com.do/2014/03/04/suspende-reunion-ministro-interior-policia-con-paraison