Opinion
The UN’s Cholera Epidemic in Haiti
By Mark Weisbrot
Time to Clean Up One of the UN’s Biggest Crimes
The people of Haiti have had a long and arduous struggle just to achieve the rights that most people in the rest of the western hemisphere have enjoyed.
From the revolution of Haitian slaves that won independence from the French in 1804, through the U.S. occupation (1915-1934), the Duvalier family dictatorship (1957-1986), and the last 20 years of devastating foreign intervention, the “international community” just hasn’t seen the people of Haiti as having the same basic human rights as people in other countries.
They still don’t, perhaps because the people of Haiti are too poor and black.
While the horrific earthquake of January 2010 brought international sympathy and aid – much more pledged than delivered – it didn’t bring a change of attitude toward Haiti.
This is perhaps most clear in the failure of the United Nations (UN) to take responsibility for the additional devastation they have brought to Haiti with the deadly disease of cholera.
Since the outbreak began in October 2010, more than 7,445 Haitians have died of the disease and more than 580,000 have been infected, and these official numbers are an underestimate. It is now firmly established, by a number of scientific studies, that UN troops brought cholera to Haiti by dumping their human waste into the country’s water supply.
(More: Haiti: Debate rages as to source of cholera)
This is gross negligence that would have landed them a multi-billion dollar lawsuit if they were a private corporation, or even criminal prosecution.
