UN rejects Haiti cholera damages claim
UN: The United Nations on Thursday formally rejected a
multi-billion-dollar damages claim for a cholera epidemic in Haiti that
has been widely blamed on UN peacekeepers.
About 8,000 people have died in the epidemic since October 2010 but
UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said a complaint made by lawyers for the
victims was “non-receivable” under a 1946 convention setting out the
UN's immunities for its actions.
UN 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 UN 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.
The UN 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 United Nations 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 UN launched a $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 US city of Boston, says it represents 5,000 victims and is demanding
$100,000 for each death and $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.
“This extreme interpretation of immunity is depriving our clients of
any remedies for wrongs committed,” Concannon added.
He said the institute would now file a case calling on a court to
refuse to back the use of the 1946 convention on the UN's privileges and
immunities as the global body had not provided an alternative path to
seek compensation.
The action could be filed in Haiti, New York or a court in a European
country such as Belgium or the Netherlands, he said.
Each one has advantages and disadvantages and we are not ready to
make a decision yet,” Concannon declared.
“Nine hundred people have died in the last year and the death rates
for December and January were higher than for the previous December and
January,” the lawyer said. “There is a sense of urgency and the legal
liability of the UN is going to keep climbing because more people are
getting sick, more are dying and they are refusing to respond. We are
going to keep fighting as long as we have to,” Concannon said.
AFP |