By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 8 -- More than a year after the cholera outbreak began in Haiti, on Tuesday lawyers seeking compensation from the UN for the victims spoke to the Press about the Petition for Relief they've filed with the UN Mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH, and the Office of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Video here.
Inner City Press asked lead counsel Ira Kurzban if similar evidence existed against a private corporation, if it would support the relief he is requesting. Absolutely, he said, the evidence is clear. There was no cholera in Haiti before the UN brought in peacekeepers from a region of Nepal beset by cholera.
Kurzban and Brian Concannon of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti said that the UN has been engaged in a cover-up, both of cholera among the contingent from Nepal and through the purportedly independent study Ban Ki-moon commissioned.
As Inner City Press asked the UN about with regard to Port Salut, where the most recent publicized incident of sexual abuse by UN personnel occurred, there is still evidence of the UN dumping garbage and sewage. IJDH says it wants to force an improvement of the UN's practices in Haiti.
But can they break though the UN's usual immunity?
The petition for relief says that the Status of Forces Agreement "requires that the UN establish a standing claims commission to settle all third-party claims."
Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky at Tuesday's noon briefing if MINUSTAH had, in fact, established such a claims commission. Nesirky said the UN is "studying the letter" from IJDH. But it is about the letter, it is a factual question: was a claims commission ever established, and has it adjudicated any cases?
Immediately after the IJDH question and answer session Inner City Press saw on UN Television -- which did not broadcast the Haiti press conference -- Ban Ki-moon speaking at the stakeout below his office with members of the Linkin Park band, mentioning the UN's good work in Haiti.
Inner City Press ran to the North Lawn building but was told that Ban Ki-moon has already left the stakeout. Inner City Press asked the members of Linkin Park, who had also spoken about Haiti, about the cholera issue.
