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The Greater Caribbean This Week

Culture of peace between Dominicans and Haitians

by Rubén Silié

The press recently reported on the murder of a Dominican woman, committed by a Haitian, who also injured the victim's husband. This provoked in the northern region of the border, where the incident occurred, acts of violence against the Haitian population in the area, perpetrated by Dominicans reacting indignantly to the abominable killing.

The incident has been presented as if it were an action carried out by the Haitian nation against the Dominican people. The emotional handling of the event is described as if the criminal decided to commit the murder because of the woman's nationality and not for the reasons behind such crimes, like: passion, robbery, personal hatred and so many other acts against moral values, which regrettably, are characteristic of human beings.

The same thing occurred a few weeks ago against a group of Dominican immigrants in Spain, in the city of Madrid, where a young man from the Dominican Republic killed a Spanish citizen and several Spanish neighbors reacted aggressively toward the other Dominicans residing in that area.

This unfortunate incident took place in the border zone, where the Dominicans and Haitians have shown historic signs of cordial neighborly relations for over a century.

I am referring to the fact that the Dominican Republic gained its independence from Haiti and not from a colonialist country, as a result of which, during the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961), for reasons of political interest and economic benefit, an ideology promoting the rejection of the Haitian nation was created.

Such an ideology allowed the dictatorship to always direct Haitian immigration toward the sugar mills, in collusion with the Haitian leaders, while instilling in the Dominicans the fear of the “peaceful Haitian invasion," which could once again take over the territory, as was the case in the nineteenth century.

One of the strategies of that ideology was to convert the border into a high security military zone, which allowed the dictator to profit from timber business dealings, while etching into the consciousness of the Dominicans, the idea that the border was remote and foreign to them, since, in addition to security, it was cloaked in a mystery related to an environment of witchcraft or magic, giving rise to numerous myths of imaginary characters, feared because of their supposed supernatural powers.

In 1934, the dictatorship ordered the killing of the Haitians living on the coastal border, which shocked the world then and still does today.

Following those disheartening events, border life returned to the normality of ancestral relations. So, while the dictatorship sought to portray the border as a zone of conflict, the residents there never carried out acts of confrontation, but were instead good neighbors. The best example of this are the trade fairs that developed there, which in the past took place on the Haitian side, and within recent decades, on the Dominican side.

As a result, it is not uncommon to hear the border residents say that the Haitian-Dominican conflicts are created between the respective capitals, but not in their territories. That expression implies that border issues are addressed following the traditions of cordial relations between the peoples of both countries, where a culture of peace, and not one of conflict, has prevailed.

We are living in a new era of relations between the two nations of the island, where there are no territorial claims, the governments constantly reiterate their friendship and hopes for co-operation, border trade is reporting considerable profits and provisions are being made so that the migration issue, which is the only problem, could be resolved on the basis of mutual interest, with rules of order and not acts of confrontation.

Dr. Rubén Silié Valdez is the Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States. The views expressed are not necessarily the official views of the ACS. Feedback can be sent to mail@acs-aec.org