Life
UN rejects Haiti cholera damages claim
The U.N. has had a huge mission in Haiti helping the impoverished country with its political strife and the impact of the January 2010 quake, which killed 250,000 people.
The U.N. has never acknowledged responsibility for the epidemic. It has insisted it was impossible to definitively pinpoint blame.
With a new surge in cholera deaths reported, the U.N. launched a US$2.2 billion appeal in December however to raise money to provide clean water and health facilities in the Caribbean nation.
“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,” Nesirky said.
Lawyers for the families of some of the dead and the sick made a compensation claim in November 2011.
The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, which is based in the U.S. city of Boston, says it represents 5,000 victims and is demanding US$100,000 for each death and US$50,000 for people made sick.
Brian Concannon, a lawyer who heads the institute, told AFP “there is a long line of cases which says immunity cannot mean impunity,” so the lawyers would pursue what is expected to become a protracted legal battle.
