Seven dead as general strike takes violent turn in Dominican Republic

channelnewsasia.com. 12 November 2003.

SANTO DOMINGO : At least seven people were killed in a 24-hour general strike, as protesters clashed with police and soldiers in the Dominican Republic, organizers said.

A number of protestors who were demanding lower gasoline prices, better state hospitals, and an end to foreign debt payments and IMF agreements were shot by armed forces in different areas of the nation.

Broad Front for the People's Struggle official Fidel Santana announced the names of five of the dead and said at least two other unidentified people were killed at Higuey in the east of the state, and at Cristo Rey in the capital.

Dozens more people were injured, and an unknown number of arrests were made, media and public organizations added.

The strike, which organizers said was a major success, took a violent turn amid a heavy military presence.

Army vehicles rumbled out in force onto streets of the capital and other cities in this Caribbean nation of eight million, a major tourist destination for holidaymakers from Europe and North America.

Transport ground almost to a halt, and most businesses closed their doors.

Unidentified demonstrators also torched offices of the ruling Dominican Revolutionary Party and the state Water and Sewers administration, local media reported, amid widespread discontent with government economic policies.

Other marchers banged on pots and pans, as some burned tires and others hurled stones at military battalions, local media reported.

Santana named the dead as Alberto Aquino Marte, 18, Daniel Martinez, both from around the capital, Daniel Baez, Humberto Rosario, 18, and Ramon Romeo Perez, 19, from the northern towns of Santiago, Bonao and La Vega.

He announced the deaths of "two more people whose names we don't have" elsewhere in the nation.

Media so far have announced six dead. Radio Popular named the Higuey victim as Jose Antonio Torres, and said he was shot several times by the driver of a car whose passage was blocked by protesters.

The head of the army, General Euripides Uribe, had insisted the situation was under control. But he said the armed forces would not tolerate civil disobedience.

"Anyone who goes out to challenge an officer knows he faces an officer who will carry out his duty," Uribe said.

Broad Front for the People's Struggle official Victor Jeronimo called the day's protests a "total success", giving a strong message to the government.

The mass mobilizations seek to demand the government change its economic policies, and boost public spending and social programs here amid an ongoing banking crisis and steep inflation.

The price of everyday consumer goods has been soaring, and the troubled power supply system remains as unreliable as ever, with blackouts that can last up to 12 hours. Gasoline (petrol) prices have increased 150 percent in three years.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission was due in the country this week to discuss the possibility of fresh credit.

In just over a year, the Dominican peso has plummeted against the US dollar. The government has forecast inflation will hit 35 percent this year.

- AFP

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