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go through Time Domain Network Wireline staff
March 31, 2017 at 2:10 pm
Thousands of people took to the streets of Roseau.
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Roseau, Dominica (TDN)
Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Roseau, the capital of the Dominican Republic, last night to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit. Two protest rallies organized by the opposition United Workers Party (UWP) attracted dozens of protesters from across the country to express their disgust with Skerrit’s leadership.
A few days ago, Police Commissioner Daniel Carbone refused to allow protest organizers to march through the streets of Roseau, citing public safety and national security. Organizers then decided to hold two public meetings, one at the proposed rally site and another in downtown Roseau. Protesters peacefully demanded Skerrit’s resignation, wearing T-shirts with the words “Skerrit Must Go” and holding placards pointing out various scandals surrounding the sale of Dominican passports and growing allegations of corruption within the government. Speakers at the meeting, including Opposition Leader Lennox Linton, outlined several reasons why they believed Skerrit should resign. Chief among them was his alleged role in harbouring Dominican diplomat Alireza Monfared, who was arrested in the Dominican Republic and extradited to Iran by Interpol. He was accused of embezzling oil proceeds from the country during a period when it was under international sanctions. Skerrit allegedly assisted Monfared and Iran in evading international sanctions by registering old tankers under the Dominican flag, which were then used to illegally transport embargoed oil. He also appointed Monfarede as a diplomat and issued him a diplomatic passport. In addition, Monfarede set up two companies in Malaysia, named My Dominica Trade House and Dominica 1, which are believed to have played a major role in the successful evasion of sanctions. Skerrit has also made other troubling appointments that protesters believe have irreparably tarnished Nigeria’s image, including former Nigerian Oil Minister Alison Mdueke, Francesco Corallo, Eric Torner and Ng Lap Seng. Mdueke is accused of stealing up to $3.2 billion from Nigeria’s treasury and is currently awaiting trial in the UK. British authorities revealed that she was on the run in the Dominican Republic and was arrested at the request of the new Nigerian government. She was appointed by Skerrit as the Dominican Trade Representative a few months ago, but the position was never disclosed to the Dominican public. Francesco Corallo was arrested in San Maarten for money laundering and other crimes and is expected to face charges in Italy. He was appointed by Skerrit as the Dominican Republic’s representative to the Food and Agriculture Organization, an appointment that Italian authorities ultimately denied. Chinese billionaire Wu Lisheng is under house arrest in New York, awaiting trial on money laundering and other charges in May 2017. Both Wu and Monfarede were close friends of Skerrit and were seen publicly accepting hospitality from him on several occasions before their arrests. Questions have arisen about Skerrit’s role in circumventing U.S.-led sanctions against Iran and whether he is a target of U.S. authorities given his relationship with Monfarede. Similar concerns have been raised about his relationship with Wu Lisheng. There is also a deep concern about the scandal surrounding the sale of diplomatic passports by Dominican authorities, which was highlighted in a January 1, 2017 episode of CBS’ 60 Minutes. The show featured a senior U.S. Department of Homeland Security official who revealed that the country’s passport program is “a huge hole in the world’s security infrastructure.” In addition to the growing international attention on the Dominican Republic, protesters have expressed disgust with Skerrit’s handling of the Dominican economy, which has seen rising poverty rates and stunted economic growth. The government also announced that they had been unable to raise salaries for civil servants for the past three years due to falling revenues. As calls for his resignation grew, the embattled Skerrit traveled to towns and villages in the Dominican Republic almost every day, promising cash donations to individuals who wanted to start businesses and rebuild housing and other infrastructure. He also became increasingly defiant, at one point threatening to remain in power “until my son Dimitri starts having children.”
Some protesters wondered aloud why Skerrit was so obsessed with staying in power, given his failure to bring relief to thousands of poor people in the Dominican Republic and the threat his reckless regulation of the passport program posed to world security.
Other photos of the protest meeting
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