By Joseph Guyler Delva and Tom Brown
LES CAYES, Haiti (Reuters) - The demonstrators who ignitedlast month's violent protests against rising food prices inHaiti have accepted U.S.-sponsored jobs rather than followthrough on a threat to launch new riots in the impoverishedCaribbean country.
The protesters in Les Cayes, a southern city where fivepeople were killed in clashes with U.N. peacekeepers in April,had vowed to take to the streets again by Monday if parliamentfailed to ratify a new prime minister to replace JacquesEdouard Alexis, who was fired by the Senate on April 12.
With shovels and rakes in hand as they cleaned dustystreets and drainage ditches in a sprawling Les Cayes slum onTuesday, protest leaders said they had entered into a shakytruce with the government but warned that violence could eruptagain soon.
"We want housing, government-sponsored communityrestaurants and stores, professional schools and healthcentres," said one, a man of about 20 who gave his name only asCharles.
"The situation has not changed yet," he added, saying thetemporary jobs handed out by the mayor's office and bankrolledby the U.S. Agency for International Development, had fallenfar short of the protesters' demands and would only buy peacefor a short period of time.
Only 40 protesters have been hired as street cleaners. Buttheir wages of about $4 (2.06 pounds) per day are more thandouble the daily average wage in the poorest country in theAmericas.
"They try to buy us off when they distribute food andcreate a few jobs ... but this will not solve the problems.We'll take to the streets again as long as our demands are notmet," said Charlemagne Bien-Aime.
The protest leaders, who gather regularly in a tree-shadedcemetery in the La Savane slum, said on May 5 that Haiti'slawmakers and President Rene Preval had one week to install anew prime minister to start addressing their demands.
One of their main issues is the cost of rice, beans andother staples in Haiti, which have more than doubled over thepast few months.
But the lower house of parliament rejected Preval's nomineeto succeed Alexis in a surprise vote on Monday, a move backedby Alexis supporters. The rejection undercut Preval's effortsto establish a stable democracy in a country wracked by decadesof political upheaval and brutal dictatorship.
SITUATION SEEN AS FRAGILE
Les Cayes Mayor Yvon Chery said the situation in the townhas been defused at least temporarily by the jobs program butacknowledged that violent protests could erupt again.
"The situation is very fragile," he told Reuters. "Thegovernment needs to pay more attention and also provide moremeans to help address the problems."
The Les Cayes protests spread quickly to other citiesincluding Port-au-Prince, the nation's capital, as tens ofthousands of demonstrators joined in riots and looting.
Preval, who marks the start of his third year in office onWednesday, has come under fire for what many see as his lack ofspeedy solutions to hunger and Haiti's ferocious poverty.
"Lespwa means absolute desperation," said Jim Jacques, whogathered amid the tombstones in La Savane's cemetery on Tuesdayto speak his piece. He was referring to Preval's politicalmovement, Lespwa, which takes its name from the Creole word for"Hope."
Preval first served as president from 1996 to 2001 and isthe only democratically elected Haitian leader to serve out afull term and successfully hand over power to another electedleader.
He has said that the food crisis in Haiti, as in other poorcountries where the problem escapes local government control,stems from high global energy prices, surging demand for basiccommodities in Asia and the diversion of some crops forincreasing biofuel production.
(Editing by Michael Christie and Cynthia Osterman)
