Leaders of protests against tax on food released

Five leaders of a nationwide protest movement against a new tax on basic foodstuffs were released from jail on Thursday, opening the way for talks with the government to ease the tension. Court sources said the five leaders of the Coalition Against Costly Living, an alliance of 30 civil society groups, were freed from prison on the orders of an investigating magistrate. Their release came shortly after President Mamadou Tandja intervened for the first time to pacify tens of thousands of protestors who have staged a series of demonstrations and strikes over the past three weeks, demanding the abolition of a new 19 percent value added tax (VAT) on basic goods and services. Tandja urged the protest movement to resolve its grievances peacefully at the negotiating table. The new tax, approved in January's budget, has pushed up the cost of food and essential services such as water and electricity at a time when this landlocked desert nation is already tightening its belt to deal with serious food shortages. The harvest failed in several parts of Niger last year following poor rainfall and an invasion of locusts. The five detained leaders of the Coalition Against Costly Living -- Nouhou Arzika, Morou Amadou, Moustaha Kadi, Moussa Tchangari and Kassoum Issa -- were arrested two weeks ago and formally charged with plotting against the state. The protest movement said it would refuse to hold talks with the government over the issue unless the men were released. They risk prison sentences of at least 10 years if the government presses ahead with a trial and manages to convict them. The government has justified the controversial introduction of VAT on everyday foodstuffs such as flour and milk, saying it brings Niger into line with other member states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). They all share the CFA franc as their common currency. The new tax is forecast to pour an extra seven billion CFA francs (US $14 million) each year into state coffers. But the Coalition Against Costly Living complains that it is crippling Niger's 11 million people, 60 percent of whom live on less than a dollar a day. On 15 March the protest movement brought tens of thousands of angry marchers into the streets of Niamey in one of the biggest demonstrations seen in the city in recent years. Two more nationwide protests have been held since then, bringing business in the country's main towns to a virtual standstill. However, the coalition called off a 24-hour general strike planned for last Tuesday as the government started to take a more conciliatory line. Tandja said in a statement on Wednesday that the new tax was necessary, but that he well understood that its introduction had come at a particularly difficult moment after a year of poor harvests. “We will find a just compromise,” the president said. The United Nations classifies Niger as the second poorest country in the world and the government has estimated that 3.6 million people in Niger could suffer food shortages this year. Last month, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) appealed for US $3 million to help feed some 400,000 people in Niger. And Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned earlier this week that severe malnutrition was on the rise in two of the country's worst hit rural areas.