Haitian Victims Formally Accuse UN for Cholera Outbreak

Port-au-Prince, Nov 9. -A Haitian civil organization formally accused the United Nations for the outbreak of cholera in this Caribbean country, and demanded an indemnity for more than 5,000 victims of the disease.Since last year, several human rights groups accused the UN Blue Helmets of the possible introduction of the disease (there were no reports on its existence) but this is the first time an official lawsuit is filed, Haitian media reported on Tuesday.

The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti estimated that the United Nations is responsible for the outbreak, since it did not test its soldiers before sending them to Haiti, local Radio Metropole said on Tuesday.

The lawsuit says that for that group, the disease, death or persistent damage from cholera are simply the product of multiple failures by the UN and is a flagrant negligence.

The lawsuit also requested that the UN should create a court to evaluate the demands on behalf of more than 6,500 dead people and almost 5,000 cholera patients after the outbreak in October 2010.

The text of the lawsuit repeates the accusations by several independent studies, pointing at the personnel of a Nepalese base of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah) for spreading the bacterium.

The Nepalese soldiers, according to the hypothesis, defecated close to the Artibonite River, one of the main Haitian affluents, used by thousands of people to wash, drink, fish or even take a bath.

Less than 1 percent of 10 million Haitians have access to drinking water, while most of the population uses latrines or does their physiological needs outdoors.

Last month, dozens of Haitians took to the streets in this capital to protest against the presence of Minustah and to demand improvements in sanitary conditions for the affected people.

According to humanitarian platform Border Net Jeannot Succ is, Haiti is living a new outbreak of the epidemics, mainly in the south, where cases are increasing. (Prensa Latina)