Protesters clash with UN forces as hunger mounts in Haiti

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Friday April 04, 2008 20:34

by HIP - Haiti Information Project

Over 5000 demonstrators took to the streets of Haiti's third largest city on Thursday to protest the high cost of living and rampant unemployment. Residents of Les Cayes also set up flaming barricades throughout the main downtown area and paralyzed traffic for several hours according to eyewitnesses.

HIP News Flash

Les Cayes, Haiti- Over 5000 demonstrators took to the streets of Haiti's third largest city on Thursday to protest the high cost of living and rampant unemployment. Residents of Les Cayes also set up flaming barricades throughout the main downtown area and paralyzed traffic for several hours according to eyewitnesses.

Later in the afternoon, demonstrators reportedly stopped two trucks loaded with rice and after the drivers fled the scene, began distributing it to the crowd. The also attacked the fence of the headquarters of United Nations forces in the area. Uruguayan troops with the United Nations Stabilization Mission, known by its acronym MINUSTAH, opened fire on the crowd and witnesses claim that five people were wounded.

A thirty-two year-old woman who identified herself as Sonia Jeanty stated during a telephone interview from Les Cayes, "We are hungry and have given up on the UN and the Preval government to help us. After all the money they have spent here most of us are eating only one meal a day. Its unacceptable especially as we hear the UN trying to tell us everyday on the radio that things have gotten better. It's a lie!"

Thursday's protest stood in stark contrast to recent press releases and interviews by UN officials that the situation in Haiti has vastly improved since the election of Rene Preval as president in Feb. 2006. The international community has invested over 2 billion in Haiti to date while reports indicate the average Haitian has seen relatively little improvement in their living conditions. The price of staples such as rice and beans, whose importation is controlled by a few wealthy families, has nearly doubled while unemployment remains at close to 80%.

The Haiti Information Project (HIP) is a non-profit alternative news service providing coverage and analysis of breaking developments in Haiti.

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