PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A U.N. acknowledgement that it played a role in introducing cholera to Haiti and vows to aid victims were welcomed Friday in the Caribbean nation, which has experienced the worst outbreak of the disease in recent history.
While the number of cholera cases has been significantly reduced from the initial outbreak in 2010, the fact that the preventable disease is still routinely sickening and killing Haitians is galling to many.
“The U.N. brought this sickness to Haiti so they need to pay the country back. A lot of people got sick, a lot have died,” said Michelle Raymond, who said her young son nearly died of the waterborne disease in 2013.
This week, deputy spokesman Farhan Haq acknowledged the United Nations’ “own involvement” in the introduction of cholera to impoverished Haiti and pledged that “a significantly new set of U.N. actions” will be presented in the next two months.
On Friday, Haq added that “the United Nations has a moral responsibility to the victims.” He said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is developing a package that would provide “material assistance” to cholera victims in Haiti, indicating for the first time that people affected will get financial help from the U.N.
For years, the U.N. had denied or been silent on longstanding allegations that it was responsible for the outbreak, while answering lawsuits in U.S. courts by claiming immunity under a 1946 convention. Haq reiterated that the world body’s legal position on immunity has not changed.
In a decision issued late Thursday, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upheld the United Nations’ immunity from a high-profile claim filed on behalf of 5,000 cholera victims who blame the U.N. for the epidemic.
Researchers say there is ample scientific evidence the disease was introduced to Haiti’s biggest river by inadequately treated sewage from a base of U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal, one of the units that have rotated in and out of a multinational force in Haiti since 2004.
Cholera is caused by bacteria that produces severe diarrhea and is contracted by eating or drinking contaminated food or water. It can lead to a rapid, painful death through complete dehydration, but is easily treatable if caught in time.
