DOMINICAN AMBASSADOR: "TRANSFORMATIONAL DIPLOMACY"

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 000427 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR WHA/CAR, WHA/PD, DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV DR HA SUBJECT: DOMINICAN AMBASSADOR: "TRANSFORMATIONAL DIPLOMACY" MEANS HELPING THOSE THREATENED BY FAILING STATES REF: SANTO DOMINGO 0273 ¶1. (U) The Dominican ambassador to the United States sees Secretary Rice's concepts of "transformational diplomacy" as SIPDIS applicable to the danger Haiti presents to the international community, including to the Dominican Republic. He argues that since failing states threaten all, the international community has to continue aid to Haiti beyond the February 7 elections, avoiding errors of the last two decades. Weak States and International Security - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶2. (U) Dominican Ambassador to the United States Flavio Dario Espinal published a lengthy op-ed piece in leading newspaper "El Caribe" on February 7, the same day as the elections in neighboring Haiti. The title was "Weak States and International Security." Citing the Secretary's Georgetown speech of January 18 and an interview with her published in "The American Interest," Espinal interprets the Secretary's message to be as the possibilities of violent SIPDIS conflict between major powers become more remote, greater dangers arise from within countries; weak, poorly governed nations now represent the greatest threats for international security. In response, a new transformational diplomacy requires new skills and abilities. ¶3. (U) Espinal draws two conclusions: - - Any country can be threatened by a weak neighboring state, for example through terrorism, but also by uncontrolled mass movements of populations. - - The Dominican Republic faces an enormous threat to its security and its economy posed by Haiti, "a state that is weak, failed and/or chaotic -- whatever term you choose." The effective control of the U.S. coastline means that the Dominican Republic is the obvious alternative destination for Haitian migrants, a flow that occurs "in the context of a profound, persistent and apparently never-ending state crisis in Haiti." The collapse of the Haitian state has made easier the increase in trafficking in narcotics, arms and persons. ¶4. (U) The ambassador stresses the need for the international community, led by donors, to engage in long-term support for reconstructing Haiti, extending beyond the elections, not discouraged by setbacks, and avoiding the errors in assistance to Haiti committed over the past twenty years. Comment - - - - ¶5. (SBU) Espinal is a well regarded diplomat and a former dean of a leading Dominican law school. He reflects a Dominican concern that has steadily grown over the past year, both in the popular imagination and among Dominicans seriously engaged in government and social policy. The Dominican Foreign Ministry has sponsored seminars and talks at home and abroad on the dilemmas of sharing Hispaniola. In late December the MFA published the first number of its new foreign policy journal, entirely devoted to the subject. ¶6. (SBU) The Ambassador's well crafted argument offers no statistics to confirm the alleged increases in cross-border crime, perhaps because no credible statistics exist, an issue explored in the new journal. And though his reasoning is plausible, he does not follow the Secretary's next step of drawing conclusions about taking action to initiate transformation. ¶7. (SBU) The current Dominican administration has in fact offered cooperation to Haiti: President Fernandez's December 13 stopover in Port au Prince, remembered by most as a near fiasco, was meant to express support for Haitian elections and the political process there. Foreign Minister Morales Troncoso received the Haitian prime minister in May. Environment ministers met last year, as did, more recently, the heads of national police forces, confirming the beginnings of law enforcement cooperation. Bilateral cooperation has brought Haitian students into Dominican universities, especially in the central Santiago area. But Dominicans perceive that they receive scant credit for such measures, especially amid the criticisms concerning human rights and the repatriations of undocumented foreigners. Coda: Words from Fernandez - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶8. (U) Reftel provides a summary account of President Fernandez's remarks on January 13 to Dominican ambassadors on this topic, in which he expresses respect for Haiti, determination to enforce respect for human rights, insistence on the country's sovereign right to determine and enforce migration policy, and a defense of the Supreme Court's December ruling that children born here to foreigners in unauthorized status do not acquire Dominican nationality. Embassy is posting an English translation of these comments as well as the full text in Spanish, on the Santo Domingo SIPRNET site, http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo. HERTELL