The United Nations head visited a family of cholera victims in Haiti to offer words of condolences and sympathy in the Caribbean nation badly affected by the disease.
Sec. Gen. Ban Ki-moon assured Haitians of his commitment to end the cholera epidemic as fast as possible. However, he did not acknowledge that possible complicity of the U.N. in causing it. The organization is the subject of three lawsuits in the United States. Mr. Ban called his visit as a necessary pilgrimage in a Los Palmas village devastated by the deadly disease. His visit's purpose is to express solidarity with the victims. He was accompanied by his wife.
Mr. Ban seeks support for a 10-year, $2.2 billion campaign aimed to eliminate cholera which was launched in December 2012 with Dominican Republic and Haiti presidents. The United Nations refuses to admit accountability for the epidemic but scientific evidence and experts suggest that Nepalese peacekeepers from a Central Plateau military base brought the cholera outbreak to Haiti. It has not offered any apology to the victims and their families who seek compensation in three lawsuits in the U.S.
"I am very much humbled and sad to have seen all this tragedy that has been affecting many Haitian people," Mr. Ban said in English after a short introduction in Creole. Mr. Ban said that the U.N. has a moral responsibility to help eradicate cholera in Haiti. "I believe that the whole international community, including the United Nations, has a moral duty to help those people to stem the further spread of cholera," he reiterated.
Mr. Ban appointed an independent body to study the outbreak in 2011. While it did not conclude how the disease got into Haiti, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said U.N. peacekeepers were the source. Human rights head Navi Pillay and other senior U.N. officials said Haiti victims of cholera should be compensated.
Since 2011, cholera killed over 8,000 people in Haiti. The country did not have the disease for 100 years until the earthquake in January 2010. Forensic experts identified the bacteria the Asian strain from Nepalese peacekeepers from Nepal visiting Haiti.
