Desperately hungry Haitians riot

Jonathan M. Katz

Associated Press writer

U.N. peacekeepers used rubber bullets and tear gas to chase away Haitians who stormed the presidential palace Tuesday demanding the resignation of President René Préval. The riots over soaring food prices turned into looting as terrified residents huddled inside.

Food prices, which have risen 40 percent on average since mid-2007, are causing unrest around the world. But nowhere do they pose a greater threat to democracy than in Haiti, one of the world’s poorest countries where in the best of times most people struggle to fill their bellies.

“I think we have made progress in stabilizing the country, but that progress is extremely fragile, highly reversible, and made even more fragile by the current socio-economic environment,” U.N. envoy Hedi Annabi said Tuesday after briefing the Security Council.

The protesters tried to break into the presidential palace Tuesday morning by charging its chained gates with a rolling dumpster, demanding Préval step down.

“We are hungry! He must go!” they cried.

Préval, a soft-spoken leader backed by Washington, was inside the palace at the time, aides said.

Brazilian soldiers in blue U.N. helmets arrived in jeeps and assault vehicles, forcing the protesters away from the palace gates. But as the protests turned into looting, the outnumbered peacekeepers only watched as people broke into shops around the palace.

After dark, the looting spread. People broke into stores and factories, witnesses said, amid blackouts reported from Port-au-Prince’s center up through its densely populated hills. Frightened residents barricaded themselves behind locked doors.

The U.S. Embassy suspended visa services and routine operations Wednesday because of the violence, and advised Americans in Port-au-Prince and Les Cayes to remain indoors. Embassy buildings were pelted with rocks Tuesday, but there were no reports of injuries to U.S. citizens.

For months, Haitians have compared their hunger pains to “eating Clorox” because of the burning feeling in their stomachs. The most desperate have come to depend on a traditional hunger palliative of cookies made of dirt, vegetable oil and salt.

Photo by Ariana Cubillos, Associated Press

A group of detained men gathered on a police truck bed after they tried to break into a supermarket for looting in Port-au-Prince April 9. Haiti’s President René Préval is calling on Haitians to quit riots over high food prices, telling them “I’m giving you orders to stop.” In his first public remarks since the unrest began last week, Preval told Haitians that the soaring food prices are a global phenomenon.