Haitians say lowering rice price not enough

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.