U.N. soldier killed in Haiti's riots over food

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - A U.N. soldier was killed Saturday in the Haitian capital, the recent site of deadly riots over rising food prices, according to a mission spokeswoman.

U.N. troops did not return fire after the soldier was shot, spokeswoman Sophie Boutaud de la Combe said. The soldier was a member of a 1,000-strong unit that deals with riots, she said. She had no further details.

Protesters clashed with U.N. soldiers earlier this week and have blamed the government for a failure to create jobs and control escalating food prices. Haiti's Senate on Saturday ousted Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis over the handling of the crisis.

A small group that gathered near the Port-au-Prince marketplace said troops had fired tear gas at them.

They chanted "Down with MINUSTAH," referring to the French acronym for the U.N. force. A small fire burned nearby as vendors gathered their belongings.

PM ousted
Earlier in the day, 16 of 17 senators who attended a special session of the chamber voted against Alexis, who was inaugurated in June 2006 along with a coalition cabinet meant to unite the fractious Caribbean nation of nearly 9 million people.

"Now it's my turn to play," said President Rene Preval when he was told by journalists of the Senate vote against his ally. The vote came shortly after he and leaders of the private sector had revealed an emergency plan to cut the cost of a sack of rice to $43 from $51.

Dealt what political analysts consider a serious blow by the senate vote but not a crushing one, Preval said he would be getting in touch with Senate leaders and legislators from the lower house to pick a new government.

Five killed in riots
The clash with senators came after days of rioting over food prices in which at least five people were killed.

Crowds of stone-throwing Haitians began battling U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian police in the south of the country on April 2, enraged at the soaring cost of rice, beans, bread, cooking oil and other staples.

The unrest spread to the capital Port-au-Prince this week, bringing the sprawling and chaotic city to a halt as mobs took over the streets, smashing windows, looting shops and setting fire to cars.

Preval, whose appeal on Wednesday for an end to the violence brought a tense calm to the capital, said $3 of the cut in the price of would be paid by businesses. The rest would be funded by international donors.

"The situation is difficult everywhere around the world, everyone has to make a sacrifice," he told a news conference on Saturday in the opulent National Palace in downtown Port-au-Prince.

"We are not going to lower taxes on food...," he said, reiterating that the poorest country in the Americas could not afford to cut its revenues or it would not have enough money to pay for longer term projects that create jobs and boost agriculture.

Food costs have soared worldwide because of a combination of surging demand in emerging countries such as China, competition with biofuels, high oil prices and market speculation. Disturbances have broken out in a host of poor nations, primarily in Africa.

Globally, food prices have risen 40 percent since mid-2007. Haiti, where most people live on less than $2 a day, is particularly affected because it imports nearly all of its food, including more than 80 percent of its rice.

Much of Haiti's once-productive farmland has been abandoned as farmers struggle to grow crops in soil decimated by erosion, deforestation, flooding and tropical storms.

Struggles of the poor
For Joseph Francious, the food riots made scrounging for something to eat even harder. A frenzy of violence and gunfire kept the unemployed father of two from venturing out to beg for three days.

By Thursday afternoon, after the bandits and looters retreated, Francois was able to spend 67 cents on a small bowl of rice to be shared by his two young children. There was nothing left for himself or his girlfriend.

"Most of the time we get up and have nothing to eat. We just pray for the sun to go down so we can go to sleep," said Francois, frayed jeans hanging loosely on his scrawny frame beneath a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt.

Hunger has long been a fact of life in the overcrowded slums that ring the Haitian capital, but soaring food prices have made the struggles of Haiti's poor unbearable. Francois buys rice from a woman whose prices have more than doubled over the past six months, from 27 cents to 67 cents for a small bowl. Other staples like spaghetti have doubled as well. The violence has only made things worse.

"The country was upside down. I couldn't go out, so the kids had no food," said Francois, who lives with 3-year-old Bechina, 4-year-old Charlie and his girlfriend Betty Joseph in an abandoned one-room schoolhouse in a slum called "Ideal City."

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