Haitians say lowering rice price not enough

from Reuters

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Four days after the government took steps to lower the price of rice to counter food riots, Haitians complained on Wednesday that the cost of other staples needed to drop too.

Business owners whose properties were looted or vandalized during recent violence over the spiraling cost of living said they would sue the government of the impoverished Caribbean nation for failing to protect their investments.

At least six people have died in demonstrations that began two weeks ago in the southern city of Les Cayes. The unrest prompted the Senate to fire Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis on Saturday for failing to increase food production.

On the same day, President Rene Preval moved to ease tensions and forestall further unrest by announcing a deal with importers to cut rice prices by about 15 percent.

But the deal produced angry confrontations in markets during the past few days as hungry Haitians expected prices to fall immediately while vendors sold off older, higher-priced stocks of rice. And many Haitians grumbled that the cost of other food needed to fall.

"Reducing the price of rice, even slightly, is a good thing, but how about the other essentials?" Melanie Previl, a 33-year-old mother of three, said on Wednesday. "We cannot just boil the rice and eat it."

Eighty percent of Haiti's nearly 9 million people live in poverty and most get by on less than $2 a day. International relief agencies have appealed for emergency funds to help Haiti and other poor countries hit by food riots.

Record oil prices, rising demand in Asia, the use of crops for biofuels and other factors have pushed up food prices around the world.

"Prices of cooking oil, beans, flour, wheat and sugar are still very high and might rise even further," said Yvon Mauger, a book seller in downtown Port-au-Prince.

The president of the Haitian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Jean Robert Argant, said businessmen whose companies were vandalized and looted will seek compensation.

"The government has the responsibility to provide security and protection for our investments and it failed to do so," Argant said.

Preval has rejected calls to compensate businesses, saying it would be difficult to identify victims because the vandalism was so widespread.

The victims ranged from big businesses in the capital to hundreds or thousands of street vendors who lost their goods. In the capital's Delmas district alone, at least 100 businesses were vandalized or looted, Mayor Wilson Jeudi said.

"Losses in terms of material damage add up to millions of dollars, but losses in terms of investment opportunities are even greater," Argant said.

Jean Limongy, a lawmaker in the Chamber of Deputies, Haiti's lower house of parliament, suggested tax breaks could help compensate businesses.

"The government does not necessarily have to give them money," he said. "I think those businesses should be allowed to operate without paying taxes for some time so that they may be able to recapitalize a little bit."