Life
UN rejects Haiti cholera damages claim
The United Nations on Thursday formally rejected a multibillion-dollar damages claim for a cholera epidemic in Haiti that has been widely blamed on U.N. peacekeepers.
About 8,000 people have died in the epidemic since October 2010 but U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said a complaint made by lawyers for the victims was “nonreceivable” under a 1946 convention setting out the U.N.’s immunities for its actions.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon telephoned Haiti’s President Michel Martelly on Thursday “to inform him of the decision and to reiterate the commitment of the United Nations to the elimination of cholera in Haiti,” Nesirky said.
Lawyers for thousands of the victims rejected the U.N. statement and said they now plan to file a case with a court in Haiti, the United States or in Europe.
Some health experts say the cholera epidemic was introduced to Haiti by Nepalese peacekeepers.
More than 635,000 people have been made sick and the epidemic was sourced to a river that runs next to the Nepalese camp in the central town of Mirebalais. The strain of cholera is the same as one endemic in Nepal.
