45 people lynched amid Haiti cholera fears: officials

[alex cross]

Source: ASIAONE NEWS

45 people lynched amid Haiti cholera fears: officials

Thu, Dec 23, 2010
AFP


PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - Angry Haitian mobs have lynched at least 45 people in recent weeks, accusing them of spreading a cholera outbreak that has killed over 2,500 people across the country, officials said Wednesday.

The number included at least 14 suspected sorcerers previously known to have been lynched in the far southwestern region of Grand'Anse as local people feared they were spreading cholera with a magical substance. The area has been largely spared by the outbreak.

"We have counted 40 people dead in Grand'Anse department alone, where people are attacking natural healers they accuse of cholera-linked witchcraft," said communications ministry official Moise Fritz Evens.

Five other people were killed in similar circumstances elsewhere in the country.

Read more: http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/World/Story/A1Story20101223-254290.html

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Where is our lame stream media on this story? Why do we have to rely on the foreign press to report the goings on in our own hemisphere? I thought Palin went down there and fixed everything anyway.

[sam kane]

1. what have we done?

Haiti is a crime scene.

[jb5150]

4. "We" haven't done anything

This type of thinking was already in place.

[WhiteTara]

6. Tom Coburn should be added to their lynch list

he started the outbreak by denying the release of funds for Haiti.

I hope he is haunted by the Haitian dead every night.

[hlthe2b]

2. OMG!

This is unbelievable....

[blur256]

3. Wow.

Sickening. And really, that's all I can say about that.

[trud]

5. just when I thought the U.S. had cornered the market on ignorant imbeciles

[Bragi]

7. I blame the UN for this

I've been watching this story, and I think UN should have admitted weeks ago that their aid workers/troops sent in from Nepal likely brought the disease with them.

By refusing the admit this, they allowed speculation to reign free, and the result is the attacks on innocent people that we now see happening.

[rabs]

8. It points directly at the Nepalese.

No cholera in Haiti for over 100 years. Outbreak begins shortly after Nepalese troops arrived couple of months ago. The epidemic was imported by U.N. troops, although unknowingly.


"It started in the centre of the country, not by the sea, nor in the refugee camps. The epidemic can't be of local origin. That's to say, it was imported," he told AFP.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11949181


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ snips ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The report by Mr Piarroux found that the source of the outbreak was a Nepalese peacekeeping base, whose toilets contaminated the Artibonite river, media reports on Tuesday said.

The river was the main focus of the outbreak when it began in October, but cholera has since spread throughout the country. The UN mission in Haiti, Minustah, said there was "no conclusive evidence" that UN peacekeepers were the source of the epidemic.

Many Haitians have blamed the Nepalese peacekeepers for bringing cholera to the country, and there have been violent demonstrations against them.

'Not local'
The strain of cholera had already been matched to one from South Asia, although it is present in other Latin American countries. Cholera is endemic in Nepal; last year, the disease killed more than 300 people in the far west of the country and this September, there was an outbreak in the capital Kathmandu. Medical experts say it is possible to carry the disease without exhibiting symptoms.

---------------------

Why are U.N. troops in Haiti? That finger points directly at Washington for the toppling of the democratically-elected President Aristide. But that is another story.

[Karenina]

9. I saw video of 2 young intrepid reporters

who busted the breakdown of sanitation at the U.N. camp upstream of the outbreak. A better question; WE ALL FEARED the outbreak of disease. HOW COULD THE U.N. with all its experience NOT have considered the importation of disease??? :wtf: Thing that make ya go hmmmm... :freak:

[Turborama]

10. Haiti mobs lynch voodoo priests over cholera fears

Source: BBC

Voodoo priests in Haiti are being lynched by mobs who blame them for spreading cholera, the country's government has said.

At least 45 people have been lynched in recent weeks as Haiti continues to be ravaged by a cholera epidemic.

Haiti's communications minister has made an appeal for the lynchings to end and called for a campaign to ensure people understand how cholera spreads.

More than 2,500 Haitians have died from the water-borne disease since October

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12073029

[Lucinda]

11. Wow. This is horrible.

:(

[Poll_Blind]

12. When Haitians turn on their own Voodoo priests, the country is in serious trouble.

Same thing happened on a bigger scale during the Black Death in regards to the power of the Catholic church though, to my knowledge, without as much violent retribution for the perceived failure of mystical remedies.

PB

[Karenina]

13. Cue Pat Robertson and his resources...

;-)

[Poll_Blind]

14. Trading one Voodoo priest for another. n/t

PB

[Karenina]

16. Ain't THAT the TRUTH!

Na, Du... Seasons Greetings, Happy, Merry, Frohes Festivus for the rest of us! Good slide! ;-) :loveya:

[Matariki]

15. Sadly, Haiti is a prime example of the end-game of Republican policy:

Privatized schools, which most people can't afford. Consequently there's a lack of education about how diseases like cholera spead. And lack of access to medical help if you are poor - i.e. most of the population. People die on hospital steps in Haiti.

And if we aren't vigilant, that is the sort of nation we will become - the logical conclusion of 'Reaganomics'.

[rabs]

17. Cuban medics a big force on Haiti cholera frontline

By Pascal Fletcher

PORT-AU-PRINCE | Fri Dec 3, 2010 5:33pm GMT

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - They don't send out press releases, don't have public information officers and their contacts are not widely publicized by the huge international humanitarian operation helping cholera-hit Haiti.

But when the United Nations appeals for more doctors and nurses to combat the deadly disease that is killing dozens by the day, it is to Cuba's medical brigade that U.N. officials are likely to turn to first.

With a tradition of service in the world's poorest and most forgotten states, the Cubans are a major frontline force in the multinational response to the raging epidemic, which has killed at least 2,000 people and probably more, since mid-October in the impoverished country.

While many Western aid workers crowd Haiti's capital, where more than 1.3 million vulnerable homeless survivors of the January 12 earthquake are crammed into tent camps, Cuba's medics are seeking out cholera victims in hard-to-reach rural hamlets.

~~~~~~~~~~ snips ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Cuban-led medical brigade in Haiti is 908 people strong, Somarriba said. It includes Cuban-trained professionals from 19 other countries -- mostly Latin American, Caribbean and African nationals who serve under the Cuban flag.

It is the largest medical contingent in Haiti from any one nation, treating 30 percent to 40 percent of the cholera patients.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6B24G620101203