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U.N. troops pull back from Haiti's national palace as calm returns to capital
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 10 - 04 - 2008

AU-PRINCE, Haiti, April 10, SPA -- U.N. peacekeepers removed
barbed-wire barricades around the presidential palace and
some businesses reopened Thursday as an uneasy calm settled
over Haiti's capital after three days of violence and
looting, according to AP.
Some roadblocks set up by protesters also came down
overnight in Port-au-Prince, where President Rene Preval
issued a desperate plea Wednesday for a halt to
demonstrations over rising food prices that led to looting
and clashes with police.
Women strolled through downtown with baskets of food on
their head Thursday, but tensions remained high in the
lawless Martissant slum, where some shouted threats at
passing cars and fresh graffiti said «Down with Preval!»
«Preval is asking us to do agriculture, but in
Port-au-Prince there is no place to do agriculture,» said
Cavet Roland, ridiculing the president's proposals.
The unrest began last week in the southern city of Les
Cayes, where five people were killed, and it spread to
cities across Haiti, the poorest country in the hemisphere.
Thousands protested in the capital, home to some 2 million
people, and bands of looters sacked warehouses and
terrorized drivers and shopkeepers with rocks.
After chasing protesters away with tear gas and rubber
bullets earlier this week, U.N. troops pulled back from the
presidential palace and the Jordanian soldiers relaxed
Thursday with their helmets off. But U.N. assault vehicles
remained within striking distance.
Many of the protesters have demanded the resignation of
the U.S.-backed president, who has been under fire for
months over soaring food prices in a country where most
people live on less than US$2 (¤1.26) a day.
Most of Haiti's 27 senators have called for the
resignation of Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Edouard
Alexis, Radio Kiskeya reported Thursday. Alexis, the second
in command to Preval, survived a no-confidence vote over
the government's handling of the economy in February but
the senators said they would call another censure vote on
Saturday.
On Wednesday, Preval pledged to try to lower food prices
and boost production by helping farmers. He also pleaded
for a halt to the violence, telling Haitians that vandalism
would only drive up the cost of living.
The U.S. Coast Guard has been watching Haiti for signs of
a migrant exodus, but routine patrols have not intercepted
any migrant vessels since the unrest began, said Petty
Officer Jennifer Johnson, a spokeswoman in Miami. In 1994,
the U.S. sent 20,000 troops to the Caribbean nation in part
to halt an influx of tens of thousands of boat people.
Food prices have risen 40 percent on average since
mid-2007, but Haiti is particularly affected because of its
extreme poverty. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called
on donors Wednesday to provide emergency aid.


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