Life
Haiti: Debate rages as to source of cholera
The studies could have dramatic consequences for the U.N. mission in Haiti, which has overseen two democratic transfers of power since its arrival in 2004 and provided stability.
The Boston-based Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti filed a rare complaint last year on behalf of Haitians who showed cholera-like symptoms, seeking damages that they hope will be used in part to build up the country’s tattered infrastructure. The various studies will likely play into the case, which is under review by the U.N.’s legal office in New York.
“It doesn’t change anyone’s responsibility for the cholera epidemic,” said Brian Concannon, director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti. “The report doesn’t contain evidence that the cholera epidemic victims suffered from anything besides the cholera strain brought to Haiti by the U.N.”
When asked what she thought of the debate, Dr. Joceline Brunache Pierre-Louis of the Haiti Health Ministry paused.
Even with the country’s problems in sanitation and its broken infrastructure, Pierre-Louis said, “we never had this disease.”
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press
