Haiti cholera outbreak linked to peacekeepers, UN admits

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Telegraph

Haiti cholera outbreak linked to peacekeepers, UN admits
Last year's deadly cholera outbreak in Haiti, which killed 4,500 people, was linked to Nepalese UN peacekeepers who were stationed at a base in the country, a UN panel has conceded.
By Jon Swaine, New York 1:21AM BST 05 May 2011

The panel found that “evidence overwhelmingly supports” the conclusion that the epidemic began via the contamination of the Artibonite River near the troops' base, with a south Asian strain of cholera.

In a report published on Wednesday night, it also listed a series of measures that the UN should introduce to ensure its peacekeepers do not introduce cholera to the countries in which they work.

But the panel refused to single out the troops for blame, stating that Haitians – who had recently suffered a devastating earthquake – should not have been using the river for drinking or washing.

The group, convened by Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-General, insisted the crisis was due to a “confluence of circumstances” and “not the fault of, or deliberate action of, a group or individual”.



Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/haiti/8494066/Haiti-cholera-outbreak-linked-to-peacekeepers-UN-admits.html

[Poll_Blind]

1. Holy-mother-lovin' shit, you have got to be kidding me. Does anyone else remember how...

...the Haitians were going ape-shit during the outbreak claiming that the UN had brought it with them?

I didn't believe them, it was right after the earthquake and things are so seriously shitty in Haiti even on a good day, when it comes to sanitation. I was wrong. That is surreal- not the part about being wrong, but after the quake cholera fucking ravaged through...whew....

That's fucked.

UN Kills Haitian Protesters 11.19.2010

PB

[rabs]

2. Story neglects to say

That Cuban medical brigades saved thousands of Haitian lives and contributed greatly to more wide-spreading of the disease.

Meanwhile, (at the bottom of the story)

Mr Ban said he would “carefully consider” the report's findings and convene a “task force within the United Nations system” to follow up its recommendations.

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

That's just ducky, "carefully consider" and convene a "task force."

[EFerrari]

3. State Department had a Cholera Prevention Day recently

and were advertising it on Twitter. I asked them how many Haitians they processed for deportation that day.

[Judi Lynn]

5. IF Haitians only had the good luck to have been born in Cuba, they wouldn't get deported, ever. n/t

[dipsydoodle]

4. ?

Is your first sentence correct or should it say less wide..... ?

[rabs]

10. oops -- left out "preventing"

to preventing more wide-spreading of the disease.
Tks....

[reggie the dog]

6. if the cubans saved lives

how did they contribute to making the disease more wide spread?

[rabs]

11. See #10 n/t

[WatsonT]

7. You would think checking peacekeepers/aid workers for infectious diseases

that could thrive in a tropical environment with large groups of people living in slums and refugee camps would be standard practice.

Oh well, it's not like we know what causes diseases or how they spread or anything.

One of them was probably just a witch or something. Kill some goats and it'll all work out fine.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. You would think aid workers could be taught

to build and use a latrine, so as not to contaminate the rivers.

duh.

:hi:

[Peace Patriot]

9. Haitians "should not have been using the river for drinking or washing." What a tool he is!

Where IS the $9 BILLION in international aid that Bill Clinton and Bush Jr. are the dispensers of?!

The FIRST thing that should have been done with that money is to get the million people who are living under tarps--not even in tents! under tarps--out of that situation and into reasonable living facilities with SAFE water supplies and SANITATION.

The cruel abomination is that the U.S. is USING its control of the aid money to "fix" Haiti's elections, in order to give the bulk of the money to corrupt U.S. 'contractors,' of the kind who spend half the money on posh lobbying offices in DC, and much of the remainder on "secure," all expenses paid, posh digs in the target country (as they are doing in Afghanistan). And, after all the money's gone, then come the multinationals and their sweatshops and "privatized" services and gated enclaves for the rich and the war profiteers and their "forward operating locations" for the Pentagon's "circle the wagons" strategy in Central America/the Caribbean.

It is beyond sickening. It is criminal. It is murderous.

And to blame Haitians for this outbreak, who don't have access to safe water because of U.S. corporate/war profiteer global power games, is like blaming the children who got sickened by the local water in La Macarena, Colombia, where a mass grave had been created by the $7 BILLION U.S.-funded Colombian military, into which they were dumping 500 to 2,000 bodies, whose rotting parts were polluting the water. The children were drinking the decaying residue of their own community members--boys murdered by the Colombian military in the "false positives" scandals and targets of the Uribe government (community activists, teachers, trade unionists). How dare those kids get sick! How dare they trust their local water! They should have known!

What a shameful sentence in this UN report! They "should not have been" using the water!