U.N. Sued for Haiti Cholera Epidemic

By Kanya D'Almeida Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 10 2013 (IPS) - A cholera epidemic that has so far killed at least 8,300 people in Haiti, and is suspected to have infected about 650,000 others since its outbreak in 2010, is now the subject of a lawsuit against the United Nations.

The world body stands accused of having re-introduced the disease to the Caribbean nation of 10 million people through its “negligent, reckless, and tortious conduct.”

It all began at a U.N. peacekeeping base on the banks of the Meille Tributary that empties into the Artibonite, the longest river in Haiti and the only source of fresh water for tens of thousands on this island of 10 million people.

In 2010 reports started trickling in that troops comprising the U.N. Stabilisation Mission in Haiti, or MINUSTAH, were allowing untreated sewage and human waste to flow into the river.

Local newspapers in Haiti claimed that heavy rains, which lash the island between May and October, were causing the paltry sanitation facilities and waste pits to overflow into the tributary.

These observations were quickly linked to several reports of cholera, an often-fatal bacterial disease typically contracted through contact with unclean water, which had been absent from the country – the poorest in the Western Hemisphere – for over a century.

The U.N. has systematically denied the results of forensic studies, including one ordered by the world body itself that identified the bacteria as an Asian strain thought to have entered the country via a Nepalese member of the 8,700-strong peacekeeping force that arrived on Haitian soil in 2004.

Consequently, the 193-member body has successfully fended off claims by cholera victims for compensation, as they struggle to find adequate medical attention in a country beset by poverty, natural disasters and the tension of living amongst what some Haitian rights groups call an occupying army.

As recently as eight months ago, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon personally telephoned Haitian President Michel Martelly to inform him that a compensation claim filed in November 2011 was “not receivable pursuant to Section 29 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.”

Stalled they might have, but U.N. officials are now up against a wall, as news of the lawsuit — filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday, Oct. 9, by the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) on behalf of five victims — goes viral.

The suit named as defendants the “United Nations (“UN”); its subsidiary, “MINUSTAH”; and at least two of their officers.”

“The U.N. knew or should have known that its reckless sanitation and waste disposal practices posed a high risk of harm to the population, and that it consciously disregarded that risk, triggering an explosive epidemic,” according to a press release issued by the Boston-based rights group Wednesday.

IJDH Spokesperson Beatrice Lindstrom told the New York Times that the amount of compensation sought by the plaintiffs would not be determined until the trial begins.

Rights groups say this suit represents the most significant attempt to pressure the world body into stepping out from behind diplomatic impunity to take responsibility for the health crisis plaguing Haiti.

Back in 2012, Ban expressed his “profound sympathy for the terrible suffering caused by the…epidemic” and vowed to continue working with local and international partners to “provide treatment, improve water and sanitation facilities, and strengthen prevention and early warning.”

That promise was reiterated on Wednesday by Ban’s spokesperson, Farhan Haq, who told journalists at a press conference that the U.N. remains “committed” to do all it can to help the people of Haiti, though he declined to comment on the lawsuit itself.