For the first time since a deadly cholera epidemic broke out in Haiti in 2010, the United Nations has admitted that its peacekeeping troops played a significant role in the spread of the disease, which has killed almost 10,000 people in the Caribbean nation and infected hundreds of thousands of others.
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Months after an quake devastated Haiti in 2010, a deadly new crisis began to unfold: Cholera spread through the wretched tent cities that had become home to thousands of displaced families.
Now for the first time the U.N.is acknowledging that it played a role.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said that the global organisation played a role in the initial outbreak of the cholera epidemic in Haiti, reported The New York Times. Although the secretary general’s statement marks the first time that the United Nations has officially acknowledged any responsibility, reporters and academics have posited the link for years.
It says the report was sent to Mr Ban last week by long-time United Nations adviser Philip Alston, a New York University law professor who consults the world body on human rights issues.
“In many ways, cholera is more a justice issue than a medical issue”, Brian Corcoran, director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, told Dhaliwal.
Haiti was considered “cholera-free” before the beginning of the outbreak.
“This is a major victory for the thousands of Haitians who have been marching for justice, writing to the United Nations and bringing the U.N.to court”, said Mario Joseph, a Haitian human rights attorney whose law firm has led a high-profile claim on behalf of 5,000 cholera victims who blame the United Nations for introducing the disease. Despite billions in aid funds being channelled to the country following the natural disaster, Haiti still suffers from a severe paucity of water and sanitation infrastructure.
On Thursday, Farhan Haq, a spokesman for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said that “over the past year the UN has become convinced it needs to do much more regarding its own involvement in the initial outbreak and the suffering of those affected by cholera”.
United Nations deputy spokesman Farhan Haq’s statement referring to the U.N.’s “own involvement”, which was sent to The Associated Press on Thursday, came a step closer to an admission of at least some responsibility and was welcomed by lawyers for the victims.
Before the outbreak that began around mid-October 2010, cholera had never been documented in Haiti.
More than 30,000 people died after the epidemic hit Haiti in 2010, reported The Guardian. United Nations officials have long argued that the organization’s charter provides diplomatic immunity, and Haq said its legal position had not changed. Inadequately treated sewage water from a peacekeepers’ base reportedly contaminated Meille River, Haiti’s biggest water resource.
Already one of the world’s poorest countries, Haiti was still reeling from a devastating quake on January 12, 2010 that killed more than 200,000 people when its misery was compounded by the cholera outbreak.
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The UN has struggled to raise donor funds to eradicate cholera as part of a 10-year programme.
