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

Some aid was on its way Friday. Brazil, which has about 1,200 peacekeepers serving in Haiti, sent an air force plane with 14 tons of food, including beans, sugar and cooking oil. France pledged food and other aid worth $1.6 million. The U.N. World Food Program, which had collected only 15 percent of its Haiti budget before the riots, appealed for donations to meet its $96 million goal.

But the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday that high food prices in the developing world are unlikely to subside anytime soon as price speculation and market failures counteract increases in food production.

This spells disaster in a nation where the World Bank says per capita income is just $480 a year.

Francois, gaunt and balding at 32, doesn't even have that much. Hired as a "transportation inspector" last year by the mayor of the nearby Cite Soleil slum, he has no salary — just an identification card that can be used in the slums to exact bribes or collect fees. His 25-year-old girlfriend also does not work. With no education or skills, their job prospects aren't good in a place where most eligible adults are unemployed.

Mostly, Francois depends on handouts from neighbors and friends. He begs in the street. If all else fails, he hunts for scraps in the garbage piles at the nearby La Saline market, in view of towering stacks of U.S.-produced rice he cannot afford.

Violence in the streets
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.

A Haitian policeman was injured in the northwestern town of Gonaives, Haitian police spokesman Frantz Lerebours said. In the south, rioters clashed with police in Jacmel and at least 2,000 people marched peacefully in Nippes.

The U.S.-backed leader blamed soaring food costs on Haiti's dependence on foreign imports and a badly damaged infrastructure that makes shipping difficult. A trained agronomist, Preval also pledged to build up Haitian agriculture and make the country more self-sufficient, offering government loans to help farmers afford fertilizer.

His message was lost on this couple. Like thousands of urban poor in the capital, they fled the hopelessness of the countryside in their youth. At age 10, Francois was given away by his rural parents to a family in Port-au-Prince, who forced him to work as a servant until he turned 18.

Eating dirt cookies
For them, promises to grow more food in the increasingly barren countryside are meaningless.

"By the time rice grows here, we'll all be dead," Francois said. "Preval is a country man. He should go plant rice."

In Haitian slang, Francois and Joseph describe their hunger pangs as "eating Clorox" because of the burning sensation in their guts. Flashing a sheepish smile, Joseph said they sometimes resort to a traditional hunger palliative — cookies made of dirt, salt and butter.

Charlie, in a red T-shirt, shorts and plastic sandals, held his head up with his hand and appeared weak as he walked slowly to the door. Bechina, in a Winnie the Pooh shirt and matching underwear, started to cry, her big eyes welling up.

"Look at my children," Francois said. "They are hungry."

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