<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
<font><font size="-1">
<div class="entry-date">August 10-12, 2012<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/10/the-uns-cholera-epidemic-in-haiti/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/10/the-uns-cholera-epidemic-in-haiti/</a><br>
<br>
<div style="float: right;">
<div style="float: left;"><a
href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/10/the-uns-cholera-epidemic-in-haiti/print"
target="one"><br>
</a></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="subheadlinestyle">Time to Clean Up One of the UN's Biggest
Crimes</div>
<h1 class="article-title">The UN’s Cholera Epidemic in Haiti</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle">by MARK WEISBROT</div>
<div class="main-text">
<p>Haitians have had a long and arduous struggle just to achieve the
rights that most people in the rest of the 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 <a
href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/us-government-still-not-ready-for-democracy-in-haiti"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.cepr.net']);">last
20 years</a> of devastating foreign intervention, the “international
community” just hasn’t seen Haitians as having the same basic human
rights as people in other countries.</p>
<p>They still don’t, perhaps because Haitians are too poor and black.
While the horrific earthquake of January 2010 brought international
sympathy and aid – <a
href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/donor-disbursements-slowing-according-to-latest-data-from-special-envoy"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.cepr.net']);">much
more pledged than delivered</a> – it didn’t bring a change of attitude
toward Haiti.</p>
<p>This is perhaps most clear in the <a href="http://www.undeny.org/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.undeny.org']);"
target="_blank">failure of the United Nations to take responsibility</a> 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 <a
href="http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/scientists-soldiers-brought-deadly-superbug-americas/story?id=15341129&singlePage=true#.UCPtefZlR-7"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://abcnews.go.com']);"
target="_blank">firmly established</a>, by a number of <a
href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds-&-columns/op-eds-&-columns/international-community-fails-haiti-yet-again-this-time-with-a-cholera-epidemic"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.cepr.net']);">scientific
studies</a>, that UN troops brought cholera to Haiti by dumping their
human waste into the country’s water supply.</p>
<p>This is gross negligence that would have landed them a multi-billion
dollar lawsuit if they were a private corporation, or even criminal
prosecution. But the UN has so far refused to even admit
responsibility; although Bill Clinton, who is the UN’s special envoy
for Haiti <a
href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/bill-clinton-says-minustah-soldier-introduced-cholera-to-haiti"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.cepr.net']);">acknowledged
in March</a> that the UN brought cholera to Haiti.</p>
<p>“As cholera was brought to Haiti due to the actions of the UN, we
believe that it is imperative for the UN to now act decisively to
control the cholera epidemic, ” said Congressional Democrats in <a
href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/104-members-of-congress-call-for-the-un-to-take-responsibility-for-cholera"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.cepr.net']);">an
appeal to Susan Rice</a>, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, a
few weeks ago. Despite the fact that the letter was signed by the
majority of Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, it was
ignored by the media in the United States. And Rice has yet to respond.</p>
<p>But controlling and putting an end to the epidemic is the least that
the UN can do for Haiti, having caused this disaster. We know that it
can be done, too – as it has in many other countries – by building the
necessary infrastructure so that Haitians can have access to clean
drinking water. The cost has been estimated at about $800 million, or <a
href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/minustah-by-the-numbers"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.cepr.net']);">the
amount that the UN spends on keeping its soldiers there</a> for a year.</p>
<p>Haiti has no civil conflict or peacekeeping agreement. The UN
military mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) therefore has no legal or
legitimate basis – on the contrary, it was sent there in 2004 to occupy
the country after Washington and its allies organized the overthrow of
the country’s democratically elected president.</p>
<p>Besides bringing the cholera epidemic to Haiti and wasting billions
of dollars, MINUSTAH troops have committed serious abuses, from
killings of civilians to sexual abuse. Last September Uruguayan troops
were caught on video sexually assaulting an 18-year-old Haitian man. In
the latest MINUSTAH sexual abuse scandal, Pakistani troops were found
guilty of raping a 14-year-old boy; they received a year in prison from
a Pakistani military tribunal. Perhaps more damning for the UN in this
case is that higher UN officials have been implicated by Haitian
authorities as <a
href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/in-minustah-abuse-case-cover-up-goes-unpunished"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.cepr.net']);">having
attempted to cover-up the crime</a>.</p>
<p>No wonder <a
href="http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/relief-and-reconstruction-watch/new-survey-shows-that-residents-of-port-au-prince-want-minustah-to-leave-and-compensate-victims-of-cholera"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.cepr.net']);">more
than 70 percent</a> of Haitians responding to a recent poll said they
wanted MINUSTAH to leave within a year. The UN can use the money
currently wasted on this military force to rid the country of cholera.
Then, at least, they will have cleaned up one of their biggest crimes
in the country.</p>
<p><em><strong>Mark Weisbrot</strong> is an economist and co-director
of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He is co-author, with
Dean Baker, of <a
href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226035468/counterpunchmaga"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.amazon.com']);">Social
Security: the Phony Crisis</a>.</em></p>
</div>
</font></font>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>