UN envoys find profound racism in Dominican Republic

Two United Nations experts says racism is a "profound and entrenched" problem in the Dominican Republic, triggering denunciations by the government of a conspiracy to defame the country.

The UN experts on racism and minorities said in a preliminary report after a week-long visit to the Caribbean country that they had found no official government policy of discrimination.

"There is nevertheless a profound and entrenched problem of racism and discrimination against such groups as Haitians, Dominicans of Haitian descent and more generally against blacks in Dominican society," they said.

Faced with grinding poverty, environmental devastation and widespread unemployment, up to a million Haitians are believed to have crossed illicitly into the neighbouring and far more prosperous Dominican Republic in search of work. The two countries share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.

Many Haitian illegal immigrants are employed in sugar fields, factories or on cattle ranches in conditions that human rights groups say often are not far removed from slavery and face periodic mass expulsions.

Dominican authorities also deny Haitian children born in the country the right to Dominican birth certificates, despite an Inter-American Court of Human Rights order to do so.

Relations between the two countries have long been strained by mistrust dating back to Haiti's 1821 occupation of the Spanish-speaking side of the island and the 1937 massacre of up to 30,000 Haitians ordered by Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. Many were marched off cliffs at gunpoint to die in the sea.

Doudou Diene, the UN Special Rapporteur on racism and related intolerance, and Gay McDougall, the UN Independent Expert on minority issues, said the cultural depth of racism in the hemisphere, the Haitian occupation and racism under Trujillo all contributed.

"This legacy remains today and helps to perpetuate negative and racist perceptions of Haitians, those of Haitian descent, and more generally against blacks in Dominican society," they said in their findings, which will be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council.

Dominican Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso called the report a set-up, saying it reflected the views of "traitors" who had a financial interest in pushing the view abroad of the Dominican Republic as racist.

He also indicated the envoys had misunderstood the Dominican Republic's relations with impoverished Haiti.

"Our border with Haiti has its own problems, is part of our reality and must be understood," Morales Troncoso said. "It's important not to confuse national sovereignty with indifference and not to confuse security with xenophobia."