Caribbean leaders defend Haiti, denounce the Dominican Republic--Statement in French of Haiti Government (below)
MIAMI — Declaring that it can no longer be business as usual, the Caribbean Community on Tuesday suspended the Dominican Republic's application to join its regional economic bloc and called on the country's leaders to urgently "take immediate, credible steps" to stave off a potential humanitarian crisis triggered by a citizenship ruling. The decision came with a formal condemnation of the Dominican Republic's constitutional court ruling of Sept. 23 stripping citizenship from anyone born in the country to parents who were there illegally. And it happened despite a last-minute assurance by Dominican President Danilo Medina that persons - the majority of them of Haitian descent - affected by the ruling would not be deported. Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, chairwoman of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), said she received word from Medina on Tuesday morning that "the government of the DR will not deport any of the persons affected