Via Foreign Policy Blogs, a good post by Chris Celius: Haiti – Cholera: When the Rescuers Bring Death Itself. Excerpt:
Results from the latest Haitian-cholera study by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) sparked an avalanche of blame and finger pointing across the country, demanding accountability and the redressing of grievances.
“Today it is clear, about 5,000 people have died and there is one group of people responsible: it is MINUSTAH,” said Steven Benoit, outspoken senator from the West Department. “It is the Nepalese military contingent of MINUSTAH, still in Mirebalais even today,” he emphasized.
All indexes pointed to the U.N. stabilization forces currently in Haiti that, according to a study by a team of epidemiologists and physicians, imported a fatal cholera strain that destroyed thousands of lives, infecting hundreds of thousands of Haitians.
“Evidence strongly suggests that a United Nations Peacekeeping mission introduced the strain to Haitians,” the team inferred, adding the report provided “circumstantial evidence that fecal contamination of a local stream draining into the Artibonite River initiated the epidemic.”
The news came as no surprise to national leaders: political, civil or otherwise who amplified their voices of discontent with MINUSTAH's persisting denial. “We demand relief and reparations, proclaimed Carole Pierre-Paul Jacob of the Organization for the Solidarity of Women (SOFA).
“And in terms of relief and reparations,” she added, “we demand that MINUSTAH recognizes that this is a crime that is political, against human rights and against a nation.”
