DR: Haiti in crisis

Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide warned that further violence would create a wave of refugees seeking entry to the Dominican Republic in the next few days, as reported in El Caribe. Aristide said that Haiti and the Dominican Republic have a "marriage without divorce" and are like "two wings of the same bird", in reference to the two nations that share the island of Hispaniola.

Speaking to reporters from the Spanish news agency EFE, Aristide said that the Dominican military authorities should prevent any use of the frontier by the "terrorists," in reference to the rebels who have taken control of the northern portion of the Western hemisphere's poorest nation and are reportedly closing in on the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

Aristide referred to the border area again when questioned on the financing of the rebel forces' financing, under the command of Guy Phillippe, the former police commissioner in Cape Haitian. Aristide asserted that the financing came from drug trafficking, and said that the rebels had killed 26 people near the DR border. Philippe, however, told reporters that his financing came from exiled Haitians and the Haitian business community.

El Caribe also reports that the refugees from Ouanaminthe (Juana Mendez) who sought protection in Dajabon last week are returning to Port-au-Prince to assist in the defense efforts there. According to reporter Abinader Fortunato, the 27 police agents, former mayor and nine civilians who received protection in the DR said they would return to the Haitian capital city and report to the police commander.

Reporter Arsenio Cruz says that the insurgents controlling the customs office in Juana Mendez have requested that the border be opened in order to carry out normal commercial transactions. El Caribe reports that the Dominican army is operating under a program designed to return all undocumented Haitians. According to Cruz, members of the Fuerza Tarea Quisqueya I, just back from Iraq, were rounding up Haitians at gunpoint and took them to the Beller Fort for processing.