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    November 08, 2011

Haiti Cholera Victims Demand UN Pay For Outbreak

   VOA News
   Demonstrators dance around a fake coffin with the UN initials on it
   during a protest against the United Nations, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
   October 19, 2011.
   Photo: AP
   Demonstrators dance around a fake coffin with the UN initials on it
   during a protest against the United Nations, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti,
   October 19, 2011.

   A human rights group says it has submitted claims to the United Nations
   seeking damages on behalf of more than 5,000 Haitians affected by the
   nation's deadly cholera outbreak.
   The petition filed by the U.S.-based Institute for Justice and
   Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) says the U.N. and its peacekeeping force are
   liable for hundreds of millions of dollars for failing to adequately
   screen peacekeeping soldiers arriving from countries with cholera
   epidemics.
   It also faults the organization for dumping untreated waste from one of
   its bases into a tributary of Haiti's Artibonite River.
   Haiti's cholera outbreak has been traced to U.N. peacekeepers from
   Nepal. A U.N. panel of experts found sanitation at the Nepalese troops'
   base was not sufficient to keep human waste from contaminating the
   river.
   Haitian health officials say cholera has killed more than 6,500
   Haitians and sickened nearly 500,000 since the outbreak began a little
   more than a year ago.
   In its statement Tuesday, the IJDH says the Haitians filing the claims
   are all either victims of the disease or relatives of victims.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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