Protests over food prices paralyze Haitian capital

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haitians erected fiery barricades and tried to storm the National Palace on Tuesday as protests against rising food prices, which have killed five people, paralyzed the impoverished nation's capital.

Some demonstrators in the city carried empty plates to show the government they had nothing to eat.

U.N. peacekeepers fired rubber bullets and tear gas to control the angry mob after the protesters used large steel garbage containers as battering rams to try to smash the gates of the palace in downtown Port-au-Prince, witnesses said.

Several people were injured by rubber bullets, including two local journalists, the witnesses said, adding that troops swarmed the area in armored personnel carriers and trucks, clearing out the demonstrators.

"If the government cannot lower the cost of living it simply has to leave," said protester Renand Alexandre. "If the police and U.N. troops want to shoot at us, that's OK, because in the end if we are not killed by bullets we'll die of hunger."

Public safety chief Eucher Luc Joseph appeared on national TV to warn that only peaceful protests would be allowed.

"We won't tolerate people who are threatening people's lives," he said. "The security forces will act vigorously."

Businesses were shuttered, schools were closed and many residents stayed inside as the demonstrations that began last Wednesday in the southern city of Les Cayes gripped the teeming capital of the Caribbean nation of nearly 9 million people.