3 killed in Haiti amid food riots, clashes

[Judi Lynn]

Source: L. A. Times

3 killed in Haiti amid food riots, clashes
From the Associated Press
April 5, 2008


PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- At least three people were killed and 25 injured in food riots and clashes with U.N. peacekeepers Friday, a mission spokeswoman and Haitian radio said.

A young man was shot in the head and killed during protests in southern Haiti. It was not immediately clear who shot him, though protesters blamed United Nations troops.

U.N. soldiers fired because they were fired upon, said U.N. spokeswoman Sophie Boutaud de la Combe. She said the mission had opened an investigation.

At least two other people were found dead in other parts of Les Cayes, a southern town where rioting occurred for a second day Friday, Radio Kiskeya reported. It was not clear how they died. Boutaud said the U.N. mission was not aware of those deaths.

Nine people were treated for bullet wounds, Boutaud said. A U.N. soldier was slightly injured.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-haiti5apr05,1,5805472.story

[Judi Lynn]

1. DU'er magbana shared this news early in the evening after hearing about it directly

from her friend in Haiti, which she posted at the D.U. Latin America forum:

Late Breaking News from Haiti
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x3270#3289

[LaurenG]

2. Oh my

:cry:

[psychmommy]

3. the info at magbana's post is awesome.

10 million dollars for food obviously isn't enough. especially when some of it is going into the pockets of the gov't. we just recently learned that the price of rice was going up and that is one of their staples. the candidates are spending millions on campaigns and we think it is cool. we better wake up and look past our borders. feed the people and create some damn jobs so that they can feed themselves. my prayers go out to you haiti.

[tpsbmam]

4. This is a global issue that far too few are paying attention to. In addition to

the human suffering, there are huge and potentially disastrous implications of these shortages. And the world is doing virtually nothing at this point. IMO, welcome to the early stages of what's been predicted as one of the outcomes of global warming.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040403937_pf.html

In Egypt, Upper Crust Gets the Bread

Across Egypt this year, people have waited in line for hours at bakeries that sell government-subsidized bread, sign of a growing crisis over the primary foodstuff in the Arab world's most populous country. President Hosni Mubarak has ordered Egypt's army to bake bread for the public, following the deaths of at least six people since March 17 -- some succumbing to exhaustion during the long waits, others stabbed in vicious struggles for places in line.

http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000416/index.html

40 countries face food shortages worldwide (2006 article)

Forty countries are facing food emergencies and require external assistance, with the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan still the most pressing humanitarian problem, according to an FAO report released today.

In Darfur, “the already precarious food supply situation may worsen if deteriorating security disrupts the main harvest due to start in the coming few weeks,” FAO’s Crop Prospects and Food Situation report warns.

Close monitoring of global food situation needed

Prospects for the 2006 world cereal harvest have deteriorated further since July, according to the report. Exceptionally hot and dry weather is adversely affecting the wheat crops in Australia, Argentina and Brazil, while drier-than-normal weather in parts of South Asia is also raising some concern for the second 2006 paddy crop.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/03/asia/north.php

North Korea's rising tensions with South Korea and the United States, coupled with soaring international grain prices and flood damage from last year, will probably take a heavy toll among famine-threatened people in the isolated country, relief experts said Thursday.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2912360.cms


NEW DELHI: Surging foodgrain prices and worsening global supplies are now bringing the domestic food crisis to the boil. The crisis has been building up for some time - Indian farmers seem to have hit a dead end as their foodgrain yields are no longer going up. Grain output has been stagnating for over a decade and now there's a growing gap between supply and demand.

.............

I could post tons more -- you get the picture.

[arundhatiroyfan]

5. kick.

[slipslidingaway]

6. Thank you, copied below is from the link in the Latin America

forum.

Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment (Paperback)
by Peter Hallward (Author)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1844671062?ie=UTF8&tag=blackcommenta-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=1844671062


http://www.blackcommentator.com/271/271_damming_the_flood_haiti_review_terrall.html

"Of all the illegal and dishonest misadventures that the Bush Administration got away with, the least criticized of all might be the 2004 overthrow of Haiti's democratically elected government. Even human rights groups and left-leaning press that stood up against the Iraq war gave, and still give, Bush a pass on the horror he unleashed on Haiti by kidnapping President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

(Editor's note: No pass was ever issued by BlackCommentator.com e.g. Return Aristide to Haiti - Try Bush as a Global Pirate (Issue 81 - March 11, 2004) - Republished in this issue)

Peter Hallward's new book Damming the Flood: Haiti, Aristide and the Politics of Containment (Verso 2008) is a welcome corrective to the false impressions and historical amnesia about Haiti afflicting most of the English-speaking world. Jonathan Kozol called it, "A brilliant politically sophisticated and morally infuriating work on a shameful piece of very recent history that the United States press has either distorted or ignored. The most important and devastating book I've read on American betrayal of democracy in one of the most tormented nations in the world."

...Hallward carefully wades through the accusations of human rights violations leveled at Aristide's government. After an exhaustive examination, he can find no evidence that holds up. In many cases, he finds that the supposed abuses themselves were greatly exaggerated, if not entirely fabricated..."

[arundhatiroyfan]

10. I will read or rent this book in the near future.

Sounds very interesting. I have not heard any news or information on Aristide in a long time but I'm generally interested in Haitian history and the political situation.

[Judi Lynn]

11. We don't get a lot of news, do we? No doubt it has something to do with the fact so much has been

done to Haiti by some of our Presidents covertly, behind our own backs, and we never get wind of it unless we are personally tuned in, and looking for more information on our own. That's really so sad.

Here's a quick video, in 2 parts of 9 minutes each concerning Walt Disney's sweatshop operation in Haiti, which is exactly the role our right-winger politicians have envisioned for Haiti's future, to be sustained through extreme violence, if necessary:

Mickey Mouse Goes to Haiti Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_OXhtgHBxk

Part 2 is available in the column to the right.

[Joanne98]

7. K&R!

[Zhade]

8. Thanks, neoliberal/neoconservative back-the-coup pact!

Fucking assholes.

[roamer65]

9. We will see a lot more of this in the near future.

...and not just in Haiti.

[Mika]

12. Democrats!.. don't worry. The "Free Trade" zones are safe.

Keep shopping!

:puke: :puke: