- Demonstrators have tried to storm the presidential palace
in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, as protests over hunger and rising
food prices spread across the developing world.
-
- Demanding the resignation of President René Préval,
the protesters attempted to break through the palace gates before being
driven back by a contingent of Brazilian United Nations peacekeepers who
used tear gas and rubber bullets.
-
- The prices of basic foods such as rice, beans, condensed
milk and fruit have risen by more than 50 per cent in Haiti, where the
poor even rely on biscuits made of mud to get through the day. Even the
price of this traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs has gone up to
more than $5 (£2.50) for 100 biscuits.
-
- There is now a grave danger of a coup being triggered
in what is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Rising costs
of commodities and basic foodstuffs have brought immense hardship to the
population, 80 per cent of whom survive on less than £1 a day and
only a minority has paid full-time jobs.
-
- And it's not just in Haiti where unrest is growing. A
combination of high fuel prices, booming consumption of food in increasingly
wealthy Asia, the use of crops for biofuels, and speculation on futures
markets have driven commodity prices to record levels.
-
- The rising food prices are causing waves of unrest around
the world. In Manila, troops armed with M-16 rifles now oversee the sale
of subsidised rice, the latest basic crop to see a spike in prices. In
Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, Burkina
Faso and Cameroon there have been protests in recent weeks all related
to the food and fuel prices.
-
- Last night a desperate appeal by President Préval,
who was elected in 2006, failed to restore order to the shattered capital.
"The solution is not to go around destroying stores," he said.
"I'm giving you orders to stop."
-
- His first public comments on the crisis came nearly a
week into the protests. With his job on the line, he urged congress to
cut taxes on imported food.
-
- But gunfire rang out around the palace after the speech,
as peacekeepers tried to drive away people looting surrounding stores.
-
- Some of the world's most populous countries are now increasingly
vulnerable to higher food prices, with the cost of rice now rising in line
with that of other grains such as wheat and corn. As food insecurity spreads,
the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is warning of tense times
ahead because the shortages of basic commodities and high prices are expected
to continue. There are only eight to 12 weeks of cereal stocks in the world
and grain supplies are at their lowest since the 1980s.
-
- Jacques Diouf, the director of the FAO, said: "There
is a risk that this unrest will spread in countries where 50 to 60 per
cent of income goes to food." The cause, he said, was "higher
demand from countries like India and China, where GDP grows at 8 to 10
per cent and the increase in income is going to food". The UN fears
that governments may be toppled and that food riots could spread, fanned
by hunger, frustration and global television coverage.
-
- The UN is helpless in the face of the spreading crisis
and it can only advise governments to improve crop irrigation, storage
facilities as well as infrastructure.
-
- Since 2002 there has been a steady surge in global food
prices. They rose 35 per cent in the year to the end of January, and since
then prices have jumped by 65 per cent. According to the FAO's world food
index, dairy prices rose nearly 80 per cent and grain 42 per cent last
year.
-
- Worldwide wave of protest
-
- Morocco
-
- 34 people were jailed in January for rioting over the
rise in food prices.
-
- Indonesia
-
- 10,000 demonstrated in Jakarta this week after soya bean
prices rose 125 per
- cent in the past year.
-
- Cameroon
-
- 24 people died and 1,600 people were arrested during
food riots in February.
- Tax cuts and wage increases followed.
-
- Egypt
-
- A wave of protests led to four deaths this month, after
food prices rose 40
- per cent.
-
- Pakistan
-
- Thousands of troops have been deployed to guard rice
supplies after
- rationing was introduced in January.
-
- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/starving-haitians-riot-as-f
- ood-prices-soar-807016.html
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