Haiti’s leader urges calm amid food price unrest
%26quot;To those who are stirring up violence, I order you to stop because it is not going to solve the problem,%26quot; Preval said in a national television and radio address.
%26quot;Poze,%26quot; said Preval, telling protesters in Creole to %26quot;cool it%26quot; in a recorded message from the ornate National Palace, protected by barbed wire and UN peacekeeping troops backed by trucks and armoured personnel carriers.
Preval%26#39;s much anticipated address, in which he spoke of possible subsidies to increase domestic production of staples like rice and other foodstuffs, came a day after demonstrators paralysed the capital and tried to break though the palace gates to demand government action over the cost of food.
At least five people have been killed during a week of violent demonstrations in the poorest country in the Americas, where 80 per cent of the population makes do on less than $US2 a day and few have full-time jobs.
A combination of high oil and fuel prices, rising demand for food in wealthier Asia, the use of farmland and crops for biofuels, bad weather and speculation on futures markets have pushed up food prices worldwide, prompting violent protests in a handful of poor countries.
Small groups of protesters returned to the streets of Port-au-Prince on Wednesday to rebuild barricades taken down by police overnight and columns of thick black smoke rose from parts of the sprawling city as demonstrators set fire once again to piles of tires.
Scores of people crowded around television sets waiting for hours for Preval to speak.
There were sporadic reports of looting in some areas and many roads were impassable due to the unrest.
%26quot;You haven%26#39;t seen nothing yet,%26quot; Jeanti Mathieu, a 22-year-old with dreadlocks, said as he helped erect a street barricade made of wrecked cars, concrete blocks and debris.
%26quot;We are waiting for the government to tell us what it is going to do. Otherwise you can expect the worst,%26quot; he said, speaking shortly before Preval%26#39;s address.
Despite such threats, the Haitian leader said his cash-strapped government could ill-afford to bow to demands that it lift all taxes on food imports. He said money was too sorely needed for road building and other projects.
The government earlier announced a multimillion-dollar package of investments in agriculture and infrastructure to create jobs and boost food production.
%26quot;Instead of subsidising the price of food products coming from abroad, we%26#39;d rather subsidise national production,%26quot; Preval said. %26quot;I propose that the price of fertiliser be subsidized by 50 percent and even more,%26quot; he said.
%26quot;It%26#39;s not with violence and with easy economic decisions that we will solve the problem of the high cost of living. It is by supporting national production,%26quot; he added.
He said public sector workers with salaries of about $US800 ($NZ1013) per month would be asked to forego 10 per cent of their wages, to free up money for other uses, but stressed that Haiti had no control over global food prices.
Haitians say prices of rice, corn, beans, cooking oil and other staples are skyrocketing. The cost of rice and some other commodities has virtually doubled in six months, while energy costs have also soared because of record oil prices.
UN peacekeepers, deployed to Haiti after former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was ousted in 2004 in an armed revolt, fired rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators on Tuesday to prevent them from overrunning the presidential palace.
Preval%26#39;s election in 2006 raised hopes that Haiti might finally tread a path toward stability after decades of violence and turmoil in this nation of 9 million people, who share the island of Hispaniola with the wealthier Dominican Republic.
