Haitians await words from President Préval

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PORT-AU-PRINCE --click: miamiherald.com/579/story/487329.html
As pressure mounted late Tuesday on Haitian President René Préval to calm spreading violence over rising food prices, he ushered advisers out of his office and went into hourslong seclusion at the presidential palace.

Préval, who had spent most of his day in closed meetings with members of his government, advisors and international diplomats, still had not made a much-anticipated address to the nation as of late Tuesday.

The silence increased simmering tensions from the violence that had spread across the capital city of Port-au-Prince for a consecutive second day, and massive protests elsewhere.

Haiti watchers said his words would be crucial in trying to quell the rising tensions, but it was unclear just what he might say: Would he offer up more reforms?

Call for the resignation of his prime ministers and other members of the government?

Or would he himself resign in what has become the biggest challenge to his presidency since his February 2007 election?

United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti tried to contain the looting and rioting while international organizations pleaded for emergency aid to increase food supplies, and protesters called for Préval and other government leaders to step down.

''He's responsible for the stability of the country, and he has to take his responsibility,'' Haitian Sen. Youri Latortue told The Miami Herald in a telephone interview from Port-au-Prince.

``When people are destroying other people's property, you can't just sit and say nothing.''

Latortue was among a growing chorus of Haitian lawmakers, including the leaders of both chambers, who demanded urgent economic and political response from Préval, as Port-au-Prince marked a second consecutive day of violent street protests with demonstrators erecting blazing barricades, attacking the National Palace, destroying businesses and essentially shutting down the capital.

Other large but mostly peaceful protests were reported Tuesday in Haiti's third-largest city -- Gonaives in the northwest -- and elsewhere in the north.

POLITICAL THREAT

If Préval's address to the public was deemed inadequate, Latortue warned that he planned to call an urgent meeting of senators Wednesday to push for the resignation of top government officials, including Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis.

Lawmakers recently failed in their bid to force the prime minister to resign, but the recent protests and the slowness in improving Haiti's social structure has increased pressure for drastic action, Latortue said.

''The government could have prevented this,'' Latortue said. ``They could have pushed for national production.

They haven't even bought one tractor to clean the canals.

Secondly.

.

.

after a year, they needed to create jobs. They didn't do it. That is why we have arrived at this point.''

In response to the protests over rising food prices, also an issue in Egypt and other parts of the world, Alexis recently announced $10 million in programs such as soup kitchens to help.

Haiti -- the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation -- depends on an estimated $96 million in donations to help feed the population.

The World Food Program has collected less than 15 percent of the aid it needs so far this year, prompting the organization to issue an emergency appeal.

New customs procedures also have made it more difficult to import food in a country that relies heavily on foreign supplies.

Haiti's Finance Minister Daniel Dorsainvil, who was attending the Inter-American Development Bank conference in Miami, said Tuesday that poverty reduction programs will be fast-tracked in coming weeks.

''Higher food prices is not something that is going to go away,'' he said, noting that government was working on a way to soften the blow to the population by increasing Haitian's purchasing power.

PEACEKEEPERS

Meanwhile, on the streets of Haiti, protesters stormed the presidential palace, forcing Préval to call the United Nations for reinforcements for palace guards.

U.N. peacekeepers fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd and later increased perimeters around the palace.

Residents reached by phone said the situation was becoming increasingly chaotic as protesters looted businesses, smashed car windshields and store fronts.

At least one news photographer was injured, and one newspaper, Le Matin, had its building pelted with rocks.

Haitian television showed thousands of people on the streets, shouting anti-Préval slogans and complaining about what they are now calling the ''Clorox'' and ''battery acid'' in their stomachs.

The words have come to signify the burning hunger felt among the poor.

The unrest over the rising cost of living began last week in the southern port city of Les Cayes, where Haitians burned cars and attacked a U.N. police base. It spread to other smaller areas in the south before arriving in Port-au-Prince on Monday, where demonstrators marched past the presidential palace and parliament.

At least five people have been reported killed, and more than 20 injured.

The protests on Tuesday in Gonaives and elsewhere in the north were peaceful as of Tuesday night, U.N. spokeswoman Sophie Boutaud de la Combe said.

`TRAP OF VIOLENCE'

''We are calling on the population to reject the trap of violence; this will not help the cost of living,'' she told The Miami Herald by phone.

``We saw this afternoon looting, vandalism in different areas of Port-au-Prince.''

The Haitian National Police high command has said it will support peaceful demonstrations but will not tolerate vandalism.

Haitian radio reported that some demonstrators had tried to break into a police station to get guns to ''shoot at MINUSTAH,'' referring to the 9,000-strong U.S. peacekeeping force.

The violence worried both government supporters and critics, who said others were taking advantage of the situation to advance their own cause -- making the situation on the ground even more challenging and urgent for the government.

''Seems to me this is an explosion that has been waiting to happen,'' said Robert Maguire, a longtime Haiti expert.

``These kinds of explosions can be very easily manipulated in Haiti; who's doing the manipulating is a question to get to the root of.''

Even so, Maguire as well as others urged Préval and the international community to quell frustrations.

More News Click: for Tuesday April 8. 2008
Haitians Riot, Loot Over Food Prices
ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5geZrL5OB_k...
New York Times
thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/hunger/?...

Lionne2, April 9 2008, 2:02 AM

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