Dominican Authorities Ban Creole Radio Program and Crack Down on Protesters

Since the coup in Haiti, Radio Enriquillo has been reporting on the Haitian army's brutal and systematic repression, including details of specific cases of gross human rights abuses, as well as developments in the international negotiations to end the crisis and restore President Aristide. Before the suspension, it also transmitted frequent interviews with President Aristide and prominent Aristide supporters. The suspension of the news program has sparked a great outpouring of support for the station. Local Dominican popular organizations from Tamayo, the neighboring town of Vicente Noble, and the city of Barahona, have staged or attempted to stage several rallies and marches in solidarity with the station. These groups had been allowed to hold protest marches against the coup d'Ètat in Haiti since September 1991 and as recently as February 7, 1992.6 However, the marches planned since the censoring of Radio Enriquillo have been forcefully suppressed by the police.

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In February, the Dominican Republic's telecommunications chief suspended the Creole-language news program of a popular Dominican radio station based in the southwest region of the country, near the Haitian border. After receiving complaints from Haiti's de facto military rulers, the Dominican authorities barred Radio Enriquillo from transmitting its news program in Creole, the Haitian language. The program is widely heard in Haiti. Since the ruthless supression of the Haitian press, which began on the first day of the September 30, 1991 military coup in Haiti, Radio Enriquillo has been a main source of information for Haitians on developments in their own country -- including human rights abuses by the army -- as well as on the progress of international negotiations for the restoration of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. By seeking to silence Radio Enriquillo's Creole broadcasts to Haiti, Dominican authorities have become a party to the Haitian military's efforts to impose a blackout on all independent sources of information reaching the Haitian people. The banning of the Creole program also marked the beginning of a crackdown on local Dominican popular organizations that have sought peacefully to demonstrate their support for Radio Enriquillo.
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