Haitian protesters retreat, warn prices must go down

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Peacekeepers cleared roadblocks and businesses reopened in Haiti’s debris-littered capital Thursday, but protesters warned that chaos will return quickly if the government fails to rein in soaring food prices.

Three days of protests and looting in the capital brought a swift political response, with 17 of Haiti’s 27 senators calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis. Protesters said President Rene Preval should be replaced as well if he does not find a solution.

“If you can’t take care of the country, you are like a leaf and you should fall,” said Fortune Metilien, a 42-year-old garbage collector.

Metilien and many of the other protesters carried tree branches to symbolize their support for former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who has vowed to return since a 2004 revolt sent him into exile in South Africa. Many demonstrators sang a popular song that includes the refrain: “If Aristide were here, it wouldn’t be like this.”

And some people in the Cite Soleil slum, a bastion of Aristide support, said envoys of the Aristide-aligned Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste visited Monday and told them to protest peacefully.

But while some blamed Aristide supporters, others attributed the protests to drug smugglers bent on creating chaos.

The unrest began last week in Les Cayes, the base of fugitive rebel leader Guy Philippe who is wanted in the U.S. on drug-smuggling charges. Five people died there.

Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia, doubts there is any political motive to the protests, describing them as a spontaneous reaction to food prices, which have risen 40 percent globally since mid-2007.

“The protests themselves are very logical given what’s happening to the cost of living,” he said.

Haiti is particularly affected by the rising prices because people are so poor, and almost all their money goes to buying food.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called this week for emergency aid, and France said Thursday it will send $1.6 million, including $1.2 million worth of food.

Preval, in his first public comments since the unrest began, pledged Wednesday to help farmers and appealed for a halt to the violence.

Three U.N. peacekeepers from Sri Lanka were shot while on patrol Wednesday in the Martissant slum by unknown gunmen. Their injuries were not life-threatening, said U.N. mission spokeswoman Sophie Boutaud de la Combe.

On Thursday, some protesters threw rocks at a U.N. building in the Martissant slum, and tires burned elsewhere in the city. But routine business resumed across most of Port-au-Prince, an impoverished capital of 2 million people, as cars and motorcycles formed long lines at gas stations that had been closed for days.

Medecins Sans Frontieres, the international medical aid group, has treated almost 170 wounded people during three days of riots – as many as it usually treats in a month – according to mission leader Jessica Neerkorn. Many of the wounded came from the Martissant area.