yayow
07-10-2009, 04:24 PM
This is a copy of a letter that was found on D.R.1, the letter was penned by Kerry Kennedy (and sent to her organization) after a recent visit regarding Dominican/Haitian relationship. Interesting thoughts, just trying to share:
Dear Friend,
Click here to visit the photo gallery.I'm on Jet Blue, heading home to New York having spent the last several days in the Dominican Republic with RFK Human Rights Award Laureate Sonia Pierre. Sonia is the country's leading advocate for Dominicans of Haitian descent, the largest and most afflicted minority in the land.
Saturday morning was sizzling, and the 100 percent humidity increased the oppressiveness of the burning heat. We arrived at a cheerfully painted pastel green schoolhouse, devoid of air circulation of any type beyond the makeshift paper fans waved futilely by the 50-plus people who gathered to tell the RFK Center delegation their grievances at the hands of a callous -- some would say racist -- bureaucracy.
Since 2004, the Dominican government has instituted a series of "reforms" that have effectively stolen the nationality of Dominicans of Haitian descent. Like the U.S. Constitution, the Dominican Constitution says that all people born on its soil are automatically citizens. But over the past five years, the government has attempted to exploit the exception for those "in transit" -- an exception intended to cover children of diplomats or tourists on vacation. The Dominican government claims that Haitian workers, who spent decades in the fields, were actually "in transit," and so their children, their grandchildren, and even their great grandchildren are suddenly no longer Dominicans, but rather citizens of Haiti, a country which the vast majority have not visited for generations.
Civil registries are regularly denying and withholding the identity documents of Dominican citizens because of their Haitian ancestry. Without proof of nationality, people are denied an array of fundamental rights and basic services, including education, adequate housing, health care, property, freedom of movement, the right to vote, social security, employment, and access to credit.
The resulting marginalization has created a tinder box of frustration, anger, and dire poverty affecting up to 1 million of the 9.2 million people living in the Dominican Republic.
And it gets worse. The Dominican government has instituted a terrifying policy of massive deportations. Military buses roam the streets of the Dominican Republic, seeking those whose dark skin color doesn't match the perceived standard for "real" Dominicans. One hundred fifty people per week who cannot produce satisfactory identification on the spot are dragged to a waiting vehicle, driven up to six or seven hours, and summarily dumped in Haiti. Throughout our time in the Dominican Republic, we were told terrifying stories of late night disappearances. In one case, preschoolers were separated from parents and placed on buses with different destinations in Haiti. In another case, three children under ten who were shining shoes on a street corner were picked up, dumped in Haiti, and managed to hitchhike home in just two weeks -- an incredible journey. And I heard the shocking story of a twelve-year-old, last seen in the back of a military vehicle three years ago, whose distraught and brokenhearted mother has never heard from her beloved again.
We met people of all ages being denied identity documents. Ancient men, (one was rumored to be 100), their backs bent from years of hard labor cutting cane in government work programs, are deprived of social security and retirement benefits. Middle-aged parents, born and raised in the Dominican Republic, are threatened with deportation and stripped of their jobs. Youth are told they cannot attend college or start a career and are left to work in dead end jobs, vulnerable to exploitation or even slavery. The youngest victims, born over the past five years, are denied any nationality at all, making them ineligible for basic services like health care and an education. ......
......Another question was far more haunting. "Do you think what you have done here will make a difference?"
To that I said "Yes. I think it does make a difference to raise the issue, to show that Sonia is not alone, to demonstrate that we care." And I believe that the RFK Center model -- working with our defenders intensively for a six-year period to help them achieve their social justice goals and increase their capacity to do so -- works. Why? Because I have witnessed the success of that model in Poland, South Africa, El Salvador, Liberia, and beyond.
I often remember the words of Robert Kennedy in his last interview. When asked how he would like to be remembered, he quoted Camus, saying he'd like to be thought of as someone who decreased suffering.
Thank you for helping us carry forward Robert Kennedy's unfinished work, and thank you, especially, for decreasing the suffering.
Onward!
Kerry Kennedy
Dear Friend,
Click here to visit the photo gallery.I'm on Jet Blue, heading home to New York having spent the last several days in the Dominican Republic with RFK Human Rights Award Laureate Sonia Pierre. Sonia is the country's leading advocate for Dominicans of Haitian descent, the largest and most afflicted minority in the land.
Saturday morning was sizzling, and the 100 percent humidity increased the oppressiveness of the burning heat. We arrived at a cheerfully painted pastel green schoolhouse, devoid of air circulation of any type beyond the makeshift paper fans waved futilely by the 50-plus people who gathered to tell the RFK Center delegation their grievances at the hands of a callous -- some would say racist -- bureaucracy.
Since 2004, the Dominican government has instituted a series of "reforms" that have effectively stolen the nationality of Dominicans of Haitian descent. Like the U.S. Constitution, the Dominican Constitution says that all people born on its soil are automatically citizens. But over the past five years, the government has attempted to exploit the exception for those "in transit" -- an exception intended to cover children of diplomats or tourists on vacation. The Dominican government claims that Haitian workers, who spent decades in the fields, were actually "in transit," and so their children, their grandchildren, and even their great grandchildren are suddenly no longer Dominicans, but rather citizens of Haiti, a country which the vast majority have not visited for generations.
Civil registries are regularly denying and withholding the identity documents of Dominican citizens because of their Haitian ancestry. Without proof of nationality, people are denied an array of fundamental rights and basic services, including education, adequate housing, health care, property, freedom of movement, the right to vote, social security, employment, and access to credit.
The resulting marginalization has created a tinder box of frustration, anger, and dire poverty affecting up to 1 million of the 9.2 million people living in the Dominican Republic.
And it gets worse. The Dominican government has instituted a terrifying policy of massive deportations. Military buses roam the streets of the Dominican Republic, seeking those whose dark skin color doesn't match the perceived standard for "real" Dominicans. One hundred fifty people per week who cannot produce satisfactory identification on the spot are dragged to a waiting vehicle, driven up to six or seven hours, and summarily dumped in Haiti. Throughout our time in the Dominican Republic, we were told terrifying stories of late night disappearances. In one case, preschoolers were separated from parents and placed on buses with different destinations in Haiti. In another case, three children under ten who were shining shoes on a street corner were picked up, dumped in Haiti, and managed to hitchhike home in just two weeks -- an incredible journey. And I heard the shocking story of a twelve-year-old, last seen in the back of a military vehicle three years ago, whose distraught and brokenhearted mother has never heard from her beloved again.
We met people of all ages being denied identity documents. Ancient men, (one was rumored to be 100), their backs bent from years of hard labor cutting cane in government work programs, are deprived of social security and retirement benefits. Middle-aged parents, born and raised in the Dominican Republic, are threatened with deportation and stripped of their jobs. Youth are told they cannot attend college or start a career and are left to work in dead end jobs, vulnerable to exploitation or even slavery. The youngest victims, born over the past five years, are denied any nationality at all, making them ineligible for basic services like health care and an education. ......
......Another question was far more haunting. "Do you think what you have done here will make a difference?"
To that I said "Yes. I think it does make a difference to raise the issue, to show that Sonia is not alone, to demonstrate that we care." And I believe that the RFK Center model -- working with our defenders intensively for a six-year period to help them achieve their social justice goals and increase their capacity to do so -- works. Why? Because I have witnessed the success of that model in Poland, South Africa, El Salvador, Liberia, and beyond.
I often remember the words of Robert Kennedy in his last interview. When asked how he would like to be remembered, he quoted Camus, saying he'd like to be thought of as someone who decreased suffering.
Thank you for helping us carry forward Robert Kennedy's unfinished work, and thank you, especially, for decreasing the suffering.
Onward!
Kerry Kennedy