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Haiti: Cholera victims threaten to sue United Nations
The institute is seeking a minimum of US$100,000 for each bereaved family and US$50,000 for each cholera survivor. It has at least 8,000 people ready to join the lawsuit, Concannon said.
When the original compensation claim was filed with the secretary-general Ban Ki Moon, and the claims unit for the source United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti in 2011, Concannon said he hoped the United Nations peacekeeping force would create a lifesaving program that would provide sanitation, potable water and medical treatment. He also said he wanted a public apology for the victims.
In December, Ban announced a US$2.27 billion initiative to help eradicate cholera in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola, and vowed to work aggressively to secure donations for the ambitious but still mostly unfunded 10-year plan.
“It’s currently an initiative that doesn’t look like it’s going to make a difference,” Concannon said.
He noted that the United Nations is only putting up about 1 to 2 percent of the funds for that plan, and said it was an initiative launched just six week after the institute had filed its initial claim.
Ban’s spokesman, Martin Nesirky, has said that the secretary-general “again expresses his profound sympathy for the terrible suffering caused by the cholera epidemic, and calls on all partners in Haiti and the international community to work together to ensure better health and a better future for the people of Haiti.”
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press
