Haiti food riots ease but critics demand PM's head

A resident pushes a wheelbarrow along a street during protests in Port-au-Prince April 9, 2008. (REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz)

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Taxis, vendors and shoppers returned to the debris-strewn streets of the Haitian capital on Thursday after the president appealed for an end to food riots, but the government came under fire from opposition politicians for not doing enough.

In a letter signed by 16 of Haiti's 27 senators, the opposition demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis after a week of violent demonstrations over the rising cost of living in which at least five people died.

The riots, which began in the south of the poorest country in the Americas and spread to Port-au-Prince on Monday, pitted tear gas- and rubber bullet-firing U.N. peacekeepers against thousands of hungry Haitians enraged over the high price of rice, beans and other food staples.

Barricades of burning tires and wrecked cars that had paralyzed the capital were dismantled, sporadic looting eased and crowds around the National Palace dispersed after President Rene Preval ordered the rioting to stop on Wednesday.

Preval promised to boost national production of food to reduce the Caribbean country's dependence on imports, but many protesters said they wanted action now and were disappointed he had not cut taxes on foodstuffs.

"The proposals of the president, as good as they may be for the future of the country, do not solve the immediate problems of the population," said the letter, signed by Youri Latortue, a nephew of a former prime minister, and members of a host of opposition parties. No one from Preval's Lespwa party signed.

"Too little, too late. That's the feeling that your proposals have provoked. It is obvious that the majority of the people don't believe any more in the capacity of your government to