U.N. council deplores Haiti violence and calls for aid

By Patrick Worsnip

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday strongly deplored violence in Haiti sparked by high food prices but called for emergency aid to relieve hardship in the Caribbean nation.

Five people have been killed in a week of demonstrations in the poorest country in the Americas, four of them during a riot last week in the town of Les Cayes. Protests continued on Tuesday, virtually paralyzing the capital Port-au-Prince.

"The members of the Security Council strongly deplored the violence which took place on 4 April 2008 and expressed their deep regret about the loss of life," said a statement issued after a briefing by U.N. envoy to Haiti Hedi Annabi.

The statement condemned an attack on facilities of the 9,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission MINUSTAH in Les Cayes "and stressed the importance of ensuring the security of U.N. personnel."

But the statement also expressed concern at the humanitarian situation in Haiti and encouraged international donors to provide emergency relief.

Annabi told reporters the vast majority of Haiti's people were seriously affected by a global rise in food prices, as 80 percent of them lived on less than $2 a day.

"A special effort is needed to provide urgent immediate relief, assistance, food aid to the population in Haiti as well as support for the next agricultural season through the provision of fertilizers, seeds," he said.

In his briefing to the council earlier, Annabi said that although the riots had been blamed on food prices, "they also appear to have a political dimension."