Rioters Return to Capital of Haiti as Food Cost Hits World Poor
James Bone

Times Online (UK)
April 10, 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3716557.ece

The Haitian capital was paralysed by food riots
yesterday as the United Nations gave warning that
soaring food prices were spurring unrest around the
world.

Rioters returned to the streets in Port-au-Prince a day
after UN peacekeepers had to fire rubber bullets to
prevent hungry Haitians from storming the presidential
palace. Columns of smoke rose over the city as
demonstrators, demanding that the Government take
action over the rising price of foodstuffs such as
rice, beans and oil, set fire to barricades made from
tyres.

At least five people have been killed and more than 20
injured. Protesters compared the burning hunger in
their stomachs to bleach or battery acid.

President Preval made a televised address last night
appealing for calm, and said he would meet food
importers to try to lower prices. 'The solution to the
high cost of living is global and we are paying the
price for all the bad policies applied for 20 years in
Haiti,' he said. 'The demonstrations and destruction
won't make the prices go down or resolve the country's
problems,' Mr Preval said. 'On the contrary, this can
make the misery grow and prevent investment in the
country."

The unrest provided dramatic evidence of the
destabilising effect of accelerating food inflation
around the globe. Food prices are surging because of
increased demand from emerging markets such as China
and India, a drought in grain-producing Australia and
competition with plant-based biofuels.

The UN says that global food prices have risen 65 per
cent since 2002, with grain rising 42 per cent and
dairy products 80 per cent in 2007 alone. The UN Food
and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a recent
report that Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Indonesia,
Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal have
all seen unrest in recent weeks linked to food and fuel
prices. 'There is a risk that this unrest will spread
in countries where 50 to 60 per cent of income goes to
food,' Jacques Diouf, the FAO director-general, said
yesterday in Delhi.

John Holmes, the top UN humanitarian official, gave
warning this week of a 'perfect storm' of rising food
and fuel prices and the negative effects of climate
change. 'Current food price trends are likely to
increase sharply both the incidence and depth of food
insecurity.

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