Port-au-Prince media’s take on the Haiti-Dominican Republic talks

Santo Domingo.- Haiti’s leading media differ in their coverage of news about the meeting now taking place in Ouanaminthe (Haiti northeast) between two commissions of Haiti’s and Dominican Republic’s governments to try to resolve bilateral issues.

Newspaper Le Nouvelliste said the first phase of the talks between the Hispaniola neighbors heralds the first of major political meetings this year and should lead to "empty the litigation and put an end to the intermittent disputes between the two countries."

Quoting Haiti Presidency spokesman Lucien Jura, Le Nouvelliste confirms that the Dominican Constitutional Court ruling, “will not be subject of discussion at the meeting,” although it’s widely known that the commissioners will in fact deal with the immigration issue.

Jura says the problem with the Dominican court’s ruling concerns exclusively "Dominicans of Haitian descent."

It also quoted Haitian Deputy Abel Descollines, who believes that this dialogue will come to “bury the decades-old hatchet of war between the two countries once and for all."

Newspaper Le Matin meanwhile calls the binational meeting the first between Haiti and Dominican Republic to raise and find solutions to problems which "poison" relations between Hispaniola’s two States.

For outlet Haitilibre.com, “Haitian and Dominican authorities have made a firm commitment to amicably resolve the various problems between the two countries.”