DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: AROUND 300 DOMINICAN TROOPS WHO WERE SERVING UNDER SPANISH COMMAND IN IRAQ RETURN HOME

Record ID: 648664

  • Title: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: AROUND 300 DOMINICAN TROOPS WHO WERE SERVING UNDER SPANISH COMMAND IN IRAQ RETURN HOME
  • Date: 10th May 2004
  • Summary: (U7) SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (MAY 10, 2004) (REUTERS) (NIGHTSHOTS) 1. VARIOUS OF AIR EUROPA PLANE CARRYING DOMINICAN TROOPS ARRIVING (2 SHOTS) 0.18 2. CU: SPANISH FLAG ON THE SIDE OF THE PLANE 0.21 3. DOMINICAN PRESIDENT HIPOLITO MEJIA (WEARING GLASSES AND BLAZER) WAITING AT THE STEPS OF THE PLANE TO GREET THE TROOPS 0.29 4. VARIOUS OF TROOPS COMING OFF OF PLANE AND GREETING MEJIA AND OTHER OFFICIALS (5 SHOTS) 1.21 5. VARIOUS OF TROOPS IN FORMATION (2 SHOTS) 1.30 6. SOLDIER GIVING FOLDED DOMINICAN FLAG TO MEJIA 1.43 7. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DOMINICAN PRESIDENT HIPOLITO MEJIA SAYING: "I want to express to you my gratitude. I want to express my personal satisfaction, my satisfaction as President of the Republic, and as a representative of the Dominican people. You have done a wonderful job. Your families were waiting for you. Thank God you are all here, safe and sound. Thank you." 2.18 8. TROOPS MEETING THEIR RELATIVES; WOMAN HUGGING A SOLDIER 2.43 9. RELATIVES CHEERING AROUND SOLDIER HOLDING A BABY 2.53 11. SOLDIER GREETING OTHER SOLDIERS 10. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SOLDIER GREETING OTHER SOLDIERS; UNIDENTIFIED DOMINICAN SOLDIER SAYING: "We are doing well - good and happy to be back here on our own land. Thank God we all came back ok - we are happy. Thank you for everything." 3.12 11. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) UNIDENTIFIED DOMINICAN SOLDIER SAYING: "Here I am, happy, happy. Everyone is so happy!" 3.22 12. SCU: MAN AND WOMAN KISSING 3.29 13. SOLDIERS GREETING RELATIVES (2 SHOTS) 3.39 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 25th May 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
  • Country: Dominican Republic
  • Reuters ID: LVAE51QRCT333GRGBJKX0ST58OJ1
  • Story Text: Dominican troops that were serving in Iraq under
    Spanish command come home.


    Close to 300 Dominican troops who had been serving
    in Iraq under Spanish command returned to the Dominican
    Republic on Monday (May 10) with celebrations and
    jubilation.

    Dominican President Hipolito Mejia waited at the plane
    carrying the soldiers to greet them as they disembarked.

    "I want to express to you my gratitude. I want to
    express my personal satisfaction, my satisfaction as
    President of the Republic, and as a representative of the
    Dominican people. You have done a wonderful job. Your
    families were waiting for you. Thank God you are all here,
    safe and sound. Thank you," he said at a ceremony at the
    airport.

    Following the official ceremony, the soldiers were
    reunited with their family members. Ecstatic celebrations
    dominated the scene as friends and family hugged and kissed.

    "We are doing well - good and happy to be back here on
    our own land. Thank God we all came back ok - we are happy.

    Thank you for everything," said one soldier.

    "Here I am, happy, happy. Everyone is so happy!" said
    another.

    Mejia had announced in mid-April that he intended to
    withdraw the troops quickly after Spain removed its
    soldiers.

    Honduras also withdrew their troops following Spain.

    Spain, with 1,400 soldiers in Iraq, has been in charge of
    troops from the Spanish-speaking nations the Dominican
    Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador. An agreement the
    Dom
    inican Republic had with the United
    Sates on troops in Iraq had been due to expire in June.

    The Dominican decision was spurred by the announcement
    by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain's new prime
    minister, that he had given orders for Spain's 1,400 troops
    in Iraq to come home as soon as possible.

    The Dominican Republic's Secretary of the Armed Forces,
    Lt. Gen. Jose Miguel Soto Jimenez had said earlier that the
    agreement with the United State to send troops to Iraq was
    so that they could help in reconstruction, but the
    situation had been getting "very worrying".

    Honduras will bring home its 370 soldiers within two
    months.

    Nicaraguan troops came home earlier this year as part
    of a normal rotation, but a new contingent has not been
    sent to Iraq because the government says it is short of
    cash.

    jrc


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