Burkina general strike starts over cost of living

By Mathieu Bonkoungou

OUAGADOUGOU, April 8 (Reuters) - Shops and businesses were shuttered in Burkina Faso's capital on Tuesday in a general strike called by unions over soaring costs of food and fuel that triggered riots in the West African state in February.

Rising food prices due to a combination of high oil and fuel prices, increased demand for food in Asia, the growing use of farmland and crops for biofuels and speculation on futures markets have prompted violent protests around the world.

After the February riots, Burkina's government agreed to a three-month suspension of import duties on staple foods, and last week it announced a raft of supplementary measures to help the land-locked country's poor cope with high prices.

They included extending the import duties suspension to six months and increasing the cheaper tranches of electricity and water bills designed to help poor households.

But unions are demanding further price cuts for food and a 25 percent increase in public sector salaries and pensions, and pressed ahead with the two-day general strike that began on Tuesday.

"This government doesn't understand any other language than force. All the concessions it has made so far have followed forceful actions. We must stand firm," Alain Bande, a teller at a bank in Burkina's capital Ouagadougou, told Reuters.

Banks, shops, schools and government offices all stayed shut and even traders who normally scrape a living running informal stalls on street corners in the city centre stayed at home.

"There has to be a relation between buying power and the cost of living. The government will also have to contain prices and monitor the quality and quantity of products (on the market)," union spokesman Laurent Ouedraogo said.