A few days ago I posted a BBC News story on Dr. Daniele Lantagne's devastating new report. Now it's been picked up in Canada and elsewhere. Here's the story in the National Post: Haiti cholera that has killed 7,500 blamed on UN troops from Nepal. Excerpt:
A devastating cholera outbreak in Haiti that has killed more than 7,500 people has been blamed on United Nations’ peacekeeping troops in the country.
Dr. Daniele Lantagne, a leading international public health expert who helped investigate the outbreak for the UN, said the “most likely” source of the cholera was a camp for soldiers from Nepal, a country where the water-borne disease is widespread.The News International in Pakistan has cited Fidel Castro's comments on the subject, and Cuba's Juventud Rebelde has reported a similar demand for compensation by the NGO UN Watch. (See post just above.)
I can only speculate on why the Cubans are making a political point about this after two years of being good soldiers in fighting cholera in Haiti. Perhaps it's just to distract attention from Cuba's own cholera and dengue problems. If so, it fails. But it could also be that the Cubans are just fed up with UN denials.
Winston Churchill famously said of the Americans, "They can always be counted on to do the right thing, after they have tried everything else." We can hope the same from the UN.
