Former Dominican President Leonel Fernández, President of the opposition Party "People's Force" during an interview on RNN, channel 27, speaking on the latent conflict between the two countries of the island around the ongoing construction of an irrigation canal in Haiti, which will capture water from the Massacre River when completed, said Saturday, June 12 that the Dominican Republic "cannot maintain a dialogue with those who are not willing to comply with the cessation of construction of this canal."

Note that the temporary stop of the construction of this canal is "a precondition of the Dominican President Luis Abinader to the resumption of any bilateral dialogue https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33945-haiti-flash-canal-on-the-massacre-river-in-haiti-dominican-president-abinader-raises-the-tone.html

For the President Fernandez the construction of this canal is a violation of the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Arbitration signed on February 20, 1929, he affirms that a clause stipulates that when there is a transboundary river, "none of the two States cannot carry out an action or activity that does not have the support or consent of the other party."

He recalled that the Dominican State has repeatedly asked Haiti to stop the construction of this canal, however, so far, the Haitian Government has not formalized the stopping of this work which continues,

He says that if Haiti continues to refuse to officially announce the suspension of construction work on this canal, the Dominican Republic should submit the dispute to the United Nations.

Furthermore, he believes that it is the responsibility of the Organization of American States to intervene and help resolve the dispute which is brewing a latent conflict, asserting that an international issue of this nature could not be resolved unilaterally because that would be declaring a war, and that is not what we do."

Recall that faced with the indifference of the Haitian authorities to Dominican demands, President Abinader warned "If they do not stop it in the coming days, they will have an official response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Dominican Government." https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33945-haiti-flash-canal-on-the-massacre-river-in-haiti-dominican-president-abinader-raises-the-tone.html

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33953-haiti-flash-dominican-geologist-osiris-de-leon-denies-haiti-s-assertions.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33945-haiti-flash-canal-on-the-massacre-river-in-haiti-dominican-president-abinader-raises-the-tone.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33854-haiti-flash-president-abinader-announces-the-construction-of-a-dam-on-the-artibonite-river-in-dominican-soil.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33823-haiti-agriculture-diversion-of-the-massacre-river-in-search-of-a-solution-with-the-dr.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33596-haiti-flash-conflict-with-the-dr-over-a-canal-diverting-the-massacre-river-to-haiti.html

SL/ HaitLibre