Here
is a report from Roger Annis about the real score over the UN’s responsibility
for the cholera outbreak in Haiti in 2010. The cholera courtesy of the UN
Nepalese soldiers.
Allan
T.
Counterpunch
Newsletter
Weekend
Edition November 15-17, 2013
Will a
Similar Tragedy Unfold in the Philippines?
Haiti, Cholera and the UN
by ROGER
ANNIS
A very informative and revealing story about the
lawsuit against the United Nations over cholera in Haiti was broadcast on the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s national evening news program, The World
At Six, on November 13. The report began, “The United Nations is
among those leading the effort to get aid to the Philippines. But even as it
helps out with this natural disaster, it is haunted by the ghosts of another.”
It is the most comprehensive news report to date by
the CBC on the Haiti cholera story. The report broke some new ground by looking
at the implications worldwide for UN operations as a result of the world body’s
conduct in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, including its stonewalling of
the victims of the cholera epidemic. Those implications, says the CBC report,
are playing out in the Philippines in the wake of the Typhoon Haiyan tragedy.
Reporter
Laura Lynch said the UN’s responsibility for the cholera outbreak in October
2010 is now established beyond dispute. In the broadcast, she speaks to one of the
victims who is suing the UN.
She also speaks to former Canadian ambassador to the UN, Stephen Lewis. He
says the UN should own up for its conduct and compensate the victims.
When asked if that could harm the UN or compromise future UN operations, he
replies, “No, I don’t think it would compromise the UN. In fact, I think it would do the UN a lot
of good to be seen as principled in the face of having caused so much
devastation.”
Lewis says
the lawsuit is already affecting UN operations. He cites the fact that the world body has dispatched its
top emergency relief official to the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon
Haiyan. Valerie Amos is the UN Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs
and is now in the Philippines to help lead the relief effort. Lewis told the
CBC, “That says to me that
they’ve learned from Haiti. That says to me, ‘We made a profound mistake. We
didn’t have the … gravitas at the top in Haiti to be able to govern what
the Nepalese soldiers did, but, by God, we’re not going to make that mistake
again.’”
Lewis
pronounced his support to the Haiti cholera lawsuit on CBC’s national
newsmagazine program Day 6 on October 12. The suit was presented to a
U.S. court in New York City on October 9.
Still, Lynch reports, the UN has so far refused to
discuss or negotiate the Haiti case. A staff attorney of one of the legal
offices directing the suit, Nicole Phillips of the Institute for Justice and
Democracy in Haiti, tells the broadcast that this could have serious
consequences for future UN operations. “Countries won’t want the UN to enter
[their territories] and there is going to be a big crisis of relevance and
credibility of the UN,” she said. “Unfortunately, we think that is already
happening.”
Following the earthquake, the lead humanitarian
coordinator of the UN in Haiti was a Canadian, Nigel Fisher. After the cholera
epidemic struck in October 2010, Fisher acted as the point man for UN denial.
In February of this year, he became the lead civilian official of the UN’s
MINUSTAH mission in Haiti on an interim basis. He left his UN posting in Haiti
altogether in May.
The cholera
outbreak in Haiti has infected more than 690,000 people and the death total is
nearly 8,500, and rising. Haiti’s population is nearly ten million.
Roger Annis is a
coordinator of the Canada Haiti Action Network.
On Wednesday, 20 November 2013 6:27 AM, Copper M. Sian Sturgeon <isdang_tumbaga@att.net> wrote:
I feel special!
On 11/19/2013 2:09 PM, alan_greene183
wrote:
Copper,I think you're the only one that my computer does that to.
I'll know for next time, thank you.
On 11/19/2013, Copper wrote:
It is I once more....
Copper.
On 11/19/2013 11:25 AM, alan_greene183 wrote:
Dear XXX,
Sorry. Yet again, the Yahoo! page isn't telling me who wrote this;
You wrote: "Haiti as most tropical or so-so country in terms of social services, epidemic of Cholera is common, I was in Peru the last time they had an epidemic of that in Peru.
Because of the devastation, after the earthquake it had been speculated that Cholera might eventually occur and it did, Allan T. is blaming that on the UN/US relief operation and did it deliberately, as if one actually can do it."
Me: I had very similar thoughts, myself, yes.
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