Port-au-Prince, May 4, 2009 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Haiti's foreign minister condemned on Monday the decapitation of a Haitian national in the neighboring Dominican Republic.
The killing was "barbarous," Alrich Nicolas told Efe.
Dominican media reported that a Haitian man was beheaded last Friday in the Santo Domingo neighborhood of Buenos Aires as a crowd watched and applauded.
Some of those present apparently used their cell phones to film the gruesome execution.
Nicolas said that Haiti's embassy in Santo Domingo delivered an official protest to Dominican authorities.
The slaying of the Haitian man was in reprisal for the previous day's beheading of Dominican Leon Lara in another part of Santo Domingo.
The Haitian national accused of that crime remains at large.
"This situation tends to propitiate a climate of tension that could hurt relations between the two countries," Nicolas said, while also condemning Lara's murder.
The Haitian foreign minister asked Dominican police and courts to "assume their responsibilities," and urged his compatriots in the neighboring country to avoid confrontations and to refrain from taking justice into their own hands.
Dominican officials estimate that around 1 million Haitians live in the country, most of them illegal immigrants who work in agriculture and construction.
The Dominican Republic and Haiti share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, with Haiti in the western portion. Though both countries are poor, Haiti is destitute, and Haitians cross the border to do work that many Dominicans will not do, such as harvesting sugar cane.
Haitians have been the target of mob violence numerous times in recent years, and the Dominican government has been widely criticized for its treatment of the migrants. EFE
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2009/05/04/4162980.htm