Two dozen Haitians found dead in Dominican van

REUTERS ^ | 01-11-2006 | REUTERS

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, Jan 11 (Reuters) - At least 24 Haitians suffocated to death in the back of a van thought to have smuggled them into the Dominican Republic, local media reported on Wednesday.

The bodies were found in the van by members of the Dominican armed forces, Radio Popular said. An army spokesman said the driver and owner of the van had been arrested and an investigation was underway.

Up to 1 million Haitians, most of them illegal immigrants, are believed to be living in the Dominican Republic, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with their impoverished and chaotic homeland.

Most work on cattle ranches and sugar plantations, or as domestic servants and construction workers in conditions that human rights groups say frequently approach slavery.

But conditions are better than in Haiti, where half of the population lives on $1 a day. Haitians reportedly pay Dominican smugglers between $40 and $60 to take them across the porous border

[Leg Olam]

Poor Haiti. Such a broken place.

[SJSAMPLE]

I thought Bill Clinton fixed it?

[Bon mots]

Hmmm... the blacks killed off all the whites and then turned on the mixed in Haiti leaving behind an entirely black nation in our hemisphere.

Now they will move to the other half of the same island, where mixed population is faring much better. In a few years, they will outnumber the Domincans, shreik for justice, have an electoral majority and rule both halves.

Then they will be able to create a truly miserable place.

[mfulstone]

When I was in Puerto Plata, D.R., the Dominicans hated Haitians. They only tolerated them when they came to harvest cane and then go home.

One sure way for a woman to lose all her friends was to carry a burden on her head in public like the Haitians were wont to do.

I met Haitian kids on the beach trying to sell carved coconuts to the tourists. Slovenly kids - quite unlike the clean, polite and responsible Dominican kids that I met in the Barrio. (I actually wished that I could have grown up in that Barrio on the mountainside above Puerto Plata.)