UN will not compensate Haiti cholera victims, Ban Ki-moon tells president
Source: The Guardian
The UN has taken the rare step of invoking its legal immunity to rebuff claims for compensation from 5,000 victims of the Haiti cholera epidemic, the worst outbreak of the disease in modern times and widely believed to have been caused by UN peacekeepers importing the infection into the country.
Citing a convention laid down in 1946, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, telephoned President Michel Martelly of Haiti to tell him that the UN was not willing to compensate any of the claimants. The epidemic has killed almost 8,000 people and stricken hundreds of thousands more – about one out of every 16 Haitians.
For the UN to claim immunity for a crisis that most experts are convinced it unwittingly caused through its own disaster relief mission is highly contentious. The infection is thought to have been carried into Haiti by UN peacekeepers from Nepal sent to help with disaster relief following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Ban's spokesperson issued a carefully worded statement that pointedly did not accept or deny liability for the epidemic. But the statement made clear that the UN would not countenance the compensation claims, invoking its immunity from such legal disputes under section 29 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the UN.
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/21/un-haiti-cholera-victims-rejects-compensation
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HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)cholera, too.
and now it's rampant. the very least you could do is pay to clean up the mess *you* made.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Last edited Thu Feb 21, 2013, 10:58 PM - Edit history (1)
I doubt that would be a good trade for the people of Haiti.
Allow lawsuits against the UN, and it would be out of existence within one year.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)Last edited Fri Feb 22, 2013, 05:16 PM - Edit history (1)
cholera didn't exist there prior to the UN occupation.
500 million sickened.
and thousands still living in tents long after the earthquake that brought these 'saviors'.
but the multinational corps are having a field day.
& ps: UN troops were in haiti *before* the earthquake, & haitians were already protesting their presence, because they were murdering and raping.
they are there to protect multinational property & elites, not ordinary haitians.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)
cstanleytech
(26,291 posts)just not bothered to send aid after the earthquake!!!
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)The UN troops were sent to Haiti in the wake of the catastrophic earthquake in January 2010. Nepal was in the middle of a cholera outbreak, as was widely known. If troops came from Nepal, even after the most stringent screening, there was the likelihood that they would bring cholera with them. In practice, screening was very lax for soldiers on their way from Nepal to Haiti. Worse, in the 10 days before they departed, they were given 10-day passes to travel around the country, including the cholera-hit areas. They were not retested on their return.
The cholera epidemic in Haiti started downriver from the Nepalese soldiers' camps at Mirebalais, Hinche and Terre Rouge near a0 tributary of the Artibonite River, north of the capital Port-au-Prince, the first case being confirmed on 22 October 2010. Cholera normally spreads through water contaminated by faecal waste and there was little attempt to dispose of this safely. The independent report found that raw sewage from the Nepalese camp at Mirebalais ended up in tanks that were pumped out twice a week by an independent contractor into a truck. It continues: "The waste is then transported across the street and up a residential dirt road to a location at the top of a hill, where it is deposited in an open septic pit." A photo of the pit in the report shows it to be just a substantial hole in the ground. It is unfenced and children play around it. Another open cesspit nearby was used by the Nepalese soldiers for solid waste, with local residents commenting that "the area is susceptible to flooding and overflow into the tributary [of the Artibonite River] during rainfall".
The UN's continuing evasion of responsibility for the Haitian outbreak, the biggest cholera epidemic anywhere in the world in recent years, has practical and fatal consequences for Haitians. It means the rest of the world is unaware of the seriousness of what has happened. The only way such an epidemic can be stopped is to improve Haiti's fresh water supply, sanitation, and health care. When the epidemic started, local medical centres did not even have a place where people could wash their hands. Haiti, where 400,000 people are still living in tents because their houses were destroyed by the earthquake two years ago, does not have any money to build such an infrastructure. When so many die because of incompetence, that incompetence becomes a crime. The UN should admit what it did, build this infrastructure, and pay reparations to its victims.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/shame-on-the-un-for-creating-the-deadly-cholera-epidemic-thats-killed-7500-in-haiti-8373765.html
More than 8,000 Haitians have died from the epidemic and 500,000 people, some 5 per cent of the population, have fallen sick since the disease entered the impoverished Caribbean nation’s water system in October 2010.
Although Haiti has suffered from disasters and epidemics of many varieties, it had been spared cholera for more than 200 years until the arrival of Nepalese peacekeepers in the Mirebalais region, north of Port-au-Prince, in 2010.
Cholera is endemic to the Indian subcontinent, and Nepal had suffered a fresh outbreak shortly before the battalion set off for Haiti. As successive investigations have concluded, the peacekeepers’ base was not provided with efficient sanitation, and soon contaminated waste began flowing into the Meille river, the main source of drinking water for nearby villagers.
Lacking a modern water and sanitation system, most Haitians depend on rivers for all their water needs, and soon the disease was rampaging through the country.
The UN initially denied all responsibility, but in 2012 released a report admitting “the strains [of cholera] isolated in Nepal and Haiti were a perfect match”. But the report went on to argue that “a confluence of factors” was behind the epidemic, which was therefore “not the fault, or deliberate action, of a particular individual”. These factors, including “Haiti’s weak infrastructure”, were responsible for causing it.
But the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti described this as “a legally invalid defence. The weakness of Haiti’s health, water and sanitation systems were … well-known before the outbreak… Haiti’s vulnerability … made the cholera epidemic a directly foreseeable consequence of the UN’s reckless release of contaminants into Haiti’s waterways.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/haitians-rage-as-un-rejects-payout-for-cholera-victims-8507586.html
The video is profoundly disturbing. It shows four men, identified as Uruguayan troops from the UN mission in Haiti (Minustah), seemingly in the act of raping an 18-year-old Haitian youth. Two have the victim pinned down on a mattress, with his hands twisted high up his back so that he cannot move. Perhaps the most unnerving part of the video is the constant chorus of laughter from the alleged perpetrators; to them, apparently, it's just a drunken party. ABC News reports that a Uruguayan navy lieutenant, Nicolas Casariego, has confirmed the authenticity of the video. A medical certificate filed with the court in Port Salut, a southern coastal town where the incident took place, says that the victim was beaten and had injuries consistent with a sexual assault.
The incident is likely to pour more gasoline on the fire of resentment that Haitians have for the UN troops who have occupied their country for more than seven years. There has been a dire pattern of abuses: in December 2007, more than 100 UN soldiers from Sri Lanka were deported under charges of sexual abuse of under-age girls. In 2005, UN troops went on the rampage in Cité Soleil, one of the poorest areas in Port-au-Prince, killing as many as 23 people, including children, according to witnesses...
But Washington... offered no objections to further raids, which continued into 2006...And make no mistake about it: the UN occupation of Haiti is really a US occupation – it is no more a multilateral force than George W Bush's "coalition of the willing" that invaded Iraq. And it is hardly more legitimate, either: it was sent there in 2004 after a US-led effort toppled Haiti's democratically elected government. Far from providing security for Haitians in the aftermath of the coup, Minustah stood by while thousands of Haitians who had supported the elected government were killed, and officials of the constitutional government jailed. Recent WikiLeaks cables also confirm that the US government sees Minustah as an instrument of its policy there.
There is no legitimate reason for a military mission of the United Nations in Haiti. The country has no civil war, and is not the subject of a peace-keeping or post-conflict agreement. And the fact that UN troops are immune from prosecution or legal action in Haiti encourages abuses. To make things even worse, it is now virtually certain that Minustah brought the cholera bacteria to Haiti that has killed more than 6,000 Haitians and infected more than 400,000 in the last 10 months. This was an act of gross negligence: there should have been supervision to make sure that fecal waste from UN troops was not dumped into the water supply, given the risks of such a deadly contamination and the known incapacity of Haiti's water, sanitation and public health system.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/03/minustah-un-haiti-abuse
cstanleytech
(26,291 posts)HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)trying to get them out, because they were murdering and raping.
They are there to protect international capital, not ordinary Haitians.
cstanleytech
(26,291 posts)not gotten involved at all in that country for any reason.
Solly Mack
(90,767 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)While rebuffing the compensation claims, the UN has vowed to continue its efforts to contain the epidemic. So far the UN has spent $118m on medical equipment, health networks, water and sewerage improvements, health education at schools and other programmes designed to stem the crisis.
In December, Ban launched an initiative to eliminate the infection, and a new oral vaccination campaign is in the offing.
Allowing lawsuits against the UN is just not workable. Remember that Tea Party jackaloons have access to the federal courts just like we do.
actslikeacarrot
(464 posts)...organization or person should be above litigation.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)If they had to defend litigation in courts across the globe, they'd all cease to exist.
The UN would go broke just from defending lawsuits in Texas.
actslikeacarrot
(464 posts)Just feel bad for the victims. I do recognize the good that the UN has done there.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)The lack of accountability for international NGOs can be infuriating. But, unfortunately the means for holding them accountable are mighty limited.
Canuckistanian
(42,290 posts)They tried to warn the UN, but were dismissed in no uncertain terms, as i recall.
Now the UN is lawyering up.
Wonderful.
triplepoint
(431 posts)Last edited Fri Feb 22, 2013, 04:09 AM - Edit history (1)
The victims should sue the govt. of the Cholera's country of origin (Nepal)...not the UN.
cstanleytech
(26,291 posts)HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)epidemic, then failed to provide proper sanitation at their camp? and their shit polluted the nearby water supply?
what is so hard to understand about willful negligence?
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)Cholera is also very treatable and I'm sure many survived who were treated by all the emergency help, UN included.
President Michel Martelly of Haiti should make a disaster plan for his country and train/educate his population on how to keep feces out their drinking water and food. For a start, instead of suing the disaster releif.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)So your blaming the Haitians and suggesting they are so ignorant and need proper training is really off-base.
The cholera epidemic in Haiti started downriver from the Nepalese soldiers' camps at Mirebalais, Hinche and Terre Rouge near a0 tributary of the Artibonite River, north of the capital Port-au-Prince, the first case being confirmed on 22 October 2010. Cholera normally spreads through water contaminated by faecal waste and there was little attempt to dispose of this safely. The independent report found that raw sewage from the Nepalese camp at Mirebalais ended up in tanks that were pumped out twice a week by an independent contractor into a truck. It continues: "The waste is then transported across the street and up a residential dirt road to a location at the top of a hill, where it is deposited in an open septic pit." A photo of the pit in the report shows it to be just a substantial hole in the ground. It is unfenced and children play around it. Another open cesspit nearby was used by the Nepalese soldiers for solid waste, with local residents commenting that "the area is susceptible to flooding and overflow into the tributary [of the Artibonite River] during rainfall".
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/shame-on-the-un-for-creating-the-deadly-cholera-epidemic-thats-killed-7500-in-haiti-8373765.html
Haiti hadn't had cholera for 200 years before the UN came in.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)That was a disaster area, people were living in the streets.
You think every citizen washed their hands, used a toilet and never drank from or bathed in sewer water? Found treatment the instant they got sick? Finding the source as the open pit sewers dump sites doesn't explain how cholora spead across the country.
That uk media site helps spread the typical Obama hate, and UN hate. For some reason conservatives don't want the UN around anymore.
The President of Haiti- can sue that "independent contractor" if their lawyers want to try to fight contractors like Cheneys Haliburton (good luck)
But they can NOT sue the UN.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)fat lot of good that will do the dead. 
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)profits for pharmacorps.
millions and billions of dollars were donated after the earthquake by well-meaning people. i looked at some of the projects that the bush/clinton foundation funded -- neoliberal bullshite to help corporations, most of it.
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)you have posted in this thread is spot on. Shame on the UN.
Poll_Blind
(23,864 posts)...Haitians were ravaged by it, they began protesting it publicly, UN troops shot and killed a number of Haitian protesters, the UN finally admitted years later that some UN forces were, in fact, responsible for the Haitian outbreak of cholera and now, years later, they absolve themselves of all responsibility.
Anyone who's not very aware of all the twists and turns this story took should really look into it. It's like one irony after another.
PB
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)No, really! Two hundred years, can't someone give Haiti a fucking break? Just one?
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)
Cal Carpenter
(4,959 posts) 