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To
UN Expert on
Cholera in
Haiti, UN
Won't Respond,
MSF Quiet Too
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
24 -- Even to
a UN expert's
repeated call
for
reparations
for cholera in
Haiti, the UN
says it
doesn't have
to respond;
usually
outspoken
group Medecins
Sans
Frontieres on
July 24 had no
comment
either. Video
here.
A
week after UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon ended
his trip to
Haiti and
Santo Domingo
after taking a
single
question about
the UN
bringing
cholera to the
island, the
UN's
independent
expert Gustavo
Gallon had
this to say,
in his
statement,
which Inner
City Press on
July 23 put online here:
“As
for cholera,
the
independent
expert noted
that the
Secretary
General
of the United
Nations
visited the
country and
traveled on 14
July to
the Central
Plateau, where
cholera first
appeared. He
launched a
sanitation
campaign
there. I hope
that this
visit will
contribute to
the
implementation
of the
recommendation
I made in my
report of
March
2014 on the
necessity of
creating a
reparations
commission for
the
victims of
cholera, in
order to allow
the evaluation
of damages,
corresponding
compensation
or
idemnification,
the
identification
of
those
responsible,
the stopping
of the
epidemic and
other
measures.
As Independent
Expert on the
situation of
human rights
in Haiti, I
take this
opportunity to
reiterate this
recommendation.”
On July 24,
Inner City
Press asked UN
deputy
spokesperson
Farhan Haq
what the UN's
response is.
"We don't have
to make any
comment on
this."
Later on July
24, Inner City
Press asked a
panel from
MSF, active in
Haiti, about
the UN's role
in cholera.
There was a
looooong
silence, video
here; MSF
treats the
victims but,
it is said,
doesn't
address how
cholera got
there. And
thus the UN
continues
UNaccountable.
Back on July
16, Inner City
Press asked
Ban's deputy
spokesperson
Haq about Ban
dodging
questions on
cholera, and
about the
court ruling
that the state
of Netherlands
is liable for
the deaths of
300 Bosniaks
in Srebrenica.
Video
here and
embedded
below.
Inner
City Press
asked Haq to
comment, in
the context of
the more than
8000 deaths in
Haiti, on this
sentence:
"there is a
growing
acceptance
that an
individual
state can be
held liable
for deaths in
a UN-mandated
operation."
Haq said, we
are still
studying it.
But he has
said nothing
in the week
since. And on
July 23, based
on Inner City
Press' style
of questioning
or legal focus
in questions,
Haq said "You
are not
entitled to be
at the noon
briefing," video here.
* * *
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