Red Cross warns of food riots over soaring prices
Pastor Dale Morgan
Red Cross warns of food riots over soaring prices*
By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER,
Associated Press Writer
GENEVA - The Red Cross warned Tuesday of a possible surge in
"food-related violence" because of soaring prices that are increasing
hunger around the world.
Most of the debate surrounding the global food crisis has focused on
boosting aid to poorer countries, but there is also concern about the
potential for violence as people become desperate for food, said Jakob
Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Kellenberger, whose agency serves as the guardian of the Geneva
Conventions on the rules of war, said fallout from rising prices has
already sparked violence, alluding to food riots that erupted in Haiti,
Egypt and Somalia.
The Red Cross would have to shoulder a big responsibility for those
affected by armed conflict, Kellenberger said. The group already
delivers food to isolated or dangerous places where the United Nations'
World Food Program can't operate, he said.
"You can imagine when you have countries where you have already an armed
conflict, where you have already a high level of violence, and you have
at the same time a lot of poor and extremely vulnerable people,"
Kellenberger told reporters.
It's not just a matter of higher prices, he said. "It becomes a question
of survival, of just having access to food."
The Red Cross has already been forced to add more than $60 million worth
of food assistance to its planned budget for 2008. It has revamped the
budget six times this year _ three times to provide greater food aid in
Somalia, Sudan's Darfur region and Yemen.
In total, the group plans to spend just over $1 billion on its relief
operations around the world in 2008 and an additional $156 million on
administrative costs.
Kellenberger stressed that his concern about food violence was mainly
about the "future risk," but he declined to say which parts of the world
he considered possible trouble spots.
"If I had them in mind, it would not be extremely intelligent if I were
to mention them," he said.