Exclusive: 5,000 Haitian Cholera Victims Sue U.N. After Deadly Epidemic Kills 6,000, Sickens 450,000

[EFerrari]

Source: DemocracyNow!

A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of more than 5,000 Haitians against the United Nations over the cholera outbreak that has further devastated Haiti in the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake. Some 450,000 Haitians have been sickened and more than 6,000 have died since the cholera outbreak erupted in October 2010, just over a year ago. It is widely believed the cholera was brought to Haiti by a battalion of Nepalese troops with the U.N. peacekeeping force. In a complaint to the United Nations, the attorneys for the Haitian victims also accuse the organization of reckless failure in containing the outbreak, arguing it is “directly attributable to the negligence, gross negligence, recklessness and deliberate indifference” for the health and lives of Haitians. "Time after time the response has been to deny the allegations. We’re hoping that this is the case that’s too big to fail. That the evidence against the United Nations is so overwhelming here that the U.N. will have no choice but to finally take responsibility for its malfeasance,” says attorney Brian Concanon of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. "What we’re asking for, what our clients are asking for, is the U.N. and international community to step up and to give Haiti the sanitation infrastructure it needs to stop the epidemic."

Read more: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/8/exclusive_5_000_haitian_cholera_victims

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(Video at link: transcript soon.)

[dipsydoodle]

1. Good

What a truly disgusting episode.

[EFerrari]

2. All the way around from MINUSTAH to the Clintons, nt.

[msanthrope]

4. Yes. The Clenis is responsible for Nepalese soldiers' shit. I mean, seriously.

The cholera epidemic is horrible. Those who died, died painfully.

Why are you blaming Bill Clinton?

[EFerrari]

5. Bill Clinton was responsible for the relief funds which should have

provided sanitation infrastructure which would have contained the outbreak and which is the only solution to the present situation. Why don't you try reading the OP before you post nonsense.

[msanthrope]

9. Tell us all, with links to prove your point, how Clinton was responsible for UN troops.

You know, UN troops he had no control over.

[msanthrope]

14. Bill Clinton wasn't responsible for UN Nepalese soldiers dumping shit in a river.

Ban Ki-Moon was directly responsible for the actions of his soldiers, but you want to place blame on Bill?????

[EFerrari]

17. I forgot about your reading problem, sorry. nt

[dipsydoodle]

6. He's directly responsible

for his own negligence.

[msanthrope]

10. Give us the link where Bill clinton was responsible for UN troops? nt

[dipsydoodle]

12. Not the UN - oversight of aid relief

see reply 5# and http://articles.cnn.com/2010-02-05/world/haiti.bill.clinton_1_haitian-government-port-au-prince-headquarters-william-j-clinton-foundation?_s=PM:WORLD

[msanthrope]

15. Right--and UN forces brought cholera. Why blame Bill Clinton???

Why mention him at all?

[EFerrari]

13. Show "us" where I said he was. n/t

[msanthrope]

16. Dude, you were the one who lumped MINUSTAH and Bill Clinton together. It's your own post, upthread.

Check it out.

[Melinda]

3. What a stunning lack of care and oversight

Just take a moment and imagine.... this could be any one of us or our children, families, friends.

How different this would be if Haiti had corruptable resources.

-sigh-

:cry:

[Judi Lynn]

7. If only Haiti will discover it does have a way to be heard, too address this hideous blunder,

or simple massive act of supreme indifference. This atrocity has produced the world's worst cholora epidemic in a country where this particular strain is foreign until imported by the UN Peacekeepers, whose presence is not even appropriate.

Thanks, EFerrari. Rec.

[marasinghe]

8. thanks for posting this, Ms. EF.

passing on your link to concerned parties.

[defendandprotect]

11. K/R