Haitian activist lambasts UN over cholera revelation, demands reparations

Record ID: 90229

  • Title: Haitian activist lambasts UN over cholera revelation, demands reparations
  • Date: 21st August 2016
  • Summary: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI (AUGUST 20, 2016) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) HAITIAN PLATFORM TO ADVOCATE ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT (PAPDA) PRESIDENT, CAMILLE CHARLMERS, SAYING: "(UN Secretary General) Ban Ki-moon must come to Haiti for a few hours, and make a statement about investing in Haiti over ten years to eradicate cholera. Because nothing was done after the statement was
  • Embargoed: 5th September 2016 19:27
  • Keywords: cholera Haitian Platform to Advocate Alternative Development outbreak MINUSTAH
  • Location: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
  • City: PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI
  • Country: Haiti
  • Topics: Health/Medicine
  • Reuters ID: LVA0064W2HNPF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A prominent Haitian human rights activist had strong words on Saturday (August 20) for the United Nations recently after the U.N. made its first acknowledgement of its possible involvement in the introduction of cholera to Haiti six years ago.
    Camille Chalmers is the President of the Haitian Platform to Advocate Alternative Development (PAPDA), a coalition of Haitian non-governmental organizations that work toward developing "alternatives to the neo-liberal model of economic globalization", according to its website.
    He said the groups have been pushing the U.N. to admit responsibility for years.
    "We looked at this news with a bit of relief, because six years ago, Haitian groups, the PAPDA (Haitian Platform to Advocate Alternative Development), cholera victims, began pushing for the United Nations to recognise its responsibility - the emergence of cholera in Haiti - an illness that had never existed in the country and is already responsible for more than 10,000 deaths, and 800,000 more affected. To us, this seems to be a concrete demonstration of how the occupation of our country by a multinational force has worked in violent contradiction of human rights," he said.
    He said the U.N. needs to do more to help Haitian cholera victims.
    "To us, yes, this is a step forward, but an insufficient one that's coming very late, because, above all, over these six years, more people have died, and we know the United Nations with a not very expensive investment could contribute to the eradication of this illness in our land," he said.
    United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon believes the world body has a moral responsibility to help Haiti's cholera victims and their families and is working to develop "material assistance" for them, his spokesman said on Friday (August 19).
    Chalmers said Ban needs to come to Haiti.
    "(UN Secretary General) Ban Ki-moon must come to Haiti for a few hours, and make a statement about investing in Haiti over ten years to eradicate cholera. Because nothing was done after the statement was made, including the fact that the emergency plans drawn up by the United Nations are underfinanced," he said.
    "The MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission In Haiti) has to leave, and has to pay the people of Haiti, recognising its guilt, the crimes committed over 12 years of occupation," he added.
    Last week, the U.N. made its first acknowledgement of its possible involvement in the introduction of cholera to Haiti six years ago that U.N. figures showed has killed more than 9,000 Haitians and infected 770,000.
    A 2011 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal, where cholera is endemic, were the likely cause of the outbreak of the water-borne disease. The peacekeepers on mission in Haiti were stationed near a river and discharged raw sewage.
    Cholera, which had not been documented in Haiti in almost 100 years before the 2010 outbreak, is an infection that causes severe diarrhea that can lead to dehydration and death, and is caused by poor sanitation.
    Ban had been seeking $2.2 billion for a 10-year cholera-elimination campaign that he started in December 2012 with the presidents of Haiti and the neighboring Dominican Republic. But less than a quarter has been raised, U.N. data showed.
    The United Nations does not legally accept responsibility for the outbreak. An independent panel appointed by Ban to study the epidemic issued a 2011 report that did not determine conclusively how the cholera was introduced to Haiti.
    A U.S. appeals court on Thursday (August 18) upheld the world body's immunity from a damage claim filed by rights lawyers on behalf of those killed or sickened by cholera.
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