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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 10/28/10

Haiti's case against the UN for possibly importing cholera epidemic

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Haiti's case against the UN for possibly importing the cholera virus
Recommended HLLN Links:
A chilling video testimony of brackish Red Cross water in Haiti- How the Red Cross ill-used your donations. For another compelling testimony on Red Cross delivering filthy water to Haiti victims ever since the earthquake, view also: How did the Red Cross spend $106 Million Dollars in Haiti: (Ezili Dantà ²'s note: Amongst some of the testimonies that's not clearly translated in this most valuable video: a woman standing next to a small child repeating "no, no, no," points to a water drum with a "Red Cross" sign on it and says that even the water they give is not treated. She explains that she drinks it because she has no money to buy good drinkable water but suffers right now from a stomach ache from drinking the Red Cross' polluted water.)
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"The cholera outbreak need not have happened. Shows the failure of the international relief effort." ---Ezili Dantà ² - Haitian cholera epidemic preventable, October 27, 2010

Aljazeera Video, October 27, 2010 -- Haiti cholera outbreak water contamination UN soldiers Nepal batallion base Mirebalais sewage. (Watch it below.)

Is Haiti's deadly cholera outbreak an imported disease? by Ezili Dantà ²
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UN's leaking, foul waste and unsecure septic tanks in Mirebalais is said by Haiti mayor to be the possible source of the Haiti cholera outbreak. Haiti residents in the Mirebalais, Artibonite and Central Plateau regions of the cholera outbreak are demanding an independent non-UN investigation of the case.

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Haitians have been bathing and drinking from the Artibonite river water for two centuries and have never before, in remembered history, gotten cholera. Suddenly they are getting sick from, according to the UN and WHO, drinking or eating food soaked or cooked from contaminated Artibonite river water. What 's new to Haiti that's caused this?

The natural assumption would be the unprecedented earthquake devastation. But the cholera outbreak is not coming from the Southern earthquake areas where sanitary conditions are compellingly worse than ever before in Haiti. So, what's that new element, additional toxin and where did it come from?

According to the people in the rural regions where the outbreak started its the oozing foul feces waste from the Nepalese UN base in Mirebalais that's on the ground flowing across a path and into the Meile river that feeds the Artibonite river.

But, yesterday, October 26, 2010, without providing any scientific proof, pathology tests or details showing there's no cholera infection amongst their UN soldiers coming from cholera-vulnerable countries, the UN Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH) denied that its Nepalese soldiers are the source of the ongoing outbreak of cholera in rural Haiti.

MINUSTAH has a Nepalese contingent in Mirebalais. Nepal regularly has cholera outbreaks, one of the last ones occurring in September 23 at Kathmandu, Nepal's capital and at Nepalgunj, Nepal in August of 2010 infecting 1400 and leaving 8 dead. (Nepal: Cholera outbreak in Kathmandu, September 23, 2010; Cholera outbreak in Nepal under control, says WHO.)

According to Haiti's president and health minister, Haiti has never before found cholera in the country. (Haitian cholera epidemic preventable, by Ezili Dantà ², October 27, 2010.)

But many of the UN soldiers including soldiers from India, Nepal, Nigeria, Chad, Niger, et al... come from countries where cholera regularly rears its head. Haiti officials believe the cholera virus was imported into Haiti. One of the most persistent suspects of such an import is the Mirebalais base near the bank of the Meille River that feeds into the Artibonite River and rural region where the Haiti cholera outbreak began in Haiti on October 19, 2010.

Laguerre Lochard, the mayor of Mirebalais, along with many of the citizens of Mirebalais accuse this UN base to be the source of the cholera outbreak that infected more than 4,000 Haitians as of this writing and killed upwards to 300. Mayor Lochard and Mirebalais residents say they've seen, with their own eyes, waste from this UN base spilling out, leaking and also some area residents say they have seen the soldiers relieving themselves at the Meille river, which feeds into the Artibonite River and is at the exact location where the outbreak started. They worry because these Nepalese soldiers may be infected without showing symptoms. The rains, storms and downpours, they say, perhaps carried their infections South where the people of Haiti are now dying in droves. (For additional info on other possible foreign toxins that could have caused the first ever cholera outbreak in Haiti and to read more on Red Cross handing out dirty water to earthquake victims, go to Is Haiti's deadly cholera outbreak an imported disease? by Ezili Dantà ².)

Also, "just this week ninety-nine cholera cases were confirmed in Pakistan. There are Pakistan UN MINUSTAH soldiers, as well as soldiers from other known cholera regions, stationed in Haiti who also could have come into Haiti with the infection." ( Is Haiti's deadly cholera outbreak an imported disease? )

For instance, an October 26, 2010 (guardian.co.uk) news report states that cholera killed more than 1,500 people in Nigeria and infected nearly 40,000 in the worst outbreak in 20 years.

There are Nigerian UN soldiers also in Haiti. The Nigerian outbreak has affected Niger and Chad, which are also countries having UN MINUSTAH soldiers in Haiti. Haitians are as worried about these disease importations as they are about their earthquake sufferings being used to increase the wealth of the 14,000 NGOS living off their pains and making a business out of poverty in Haiti.

The UN mission to Haiti makes approximately $760million per year in Haiti and provides 14,000 jobs to US and US friendly-countries off Haiti's back.

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Human Rights Lawyer, Èzili Dantò is dedicated to correcting the media lies and colonial narratives about Haiti. An award winning playwright, a performance poet, author and lawyer, Èzili Dantò is founder of the Haitian (more...)
 

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