US urges dismissal of Haitian group's cholera lawsuit against UN
Source: Reuters
US urges dismissal of Haitian group's cholera lawsuit against UN
Lawsuit filed against the UN claims peacekeepers caused devastating cholera epidemic after country’s 2010 earthquake
Reuters in New York
theguardian.com, Thursday 23 October 2014 16.10 EDT
The US government urged a federal judge on Thursday to dismiss a lawsuit filed against the United Nations by a group of Haitians who claim peacekeepers caused the devastating cholera epidemic that followed their country’s 2010 earthquake.
Ellen Blain, a lawyer for the Justice Department, told US district judge J Paul Oetken in New York that the lawsuit, filed in 2013, should be thrown out because the United Nations is “absolutely immune” from such claims.
The cholera epidemic, the worst in recent history, has killed 8,500 people and sickened more than 700,000 since October 2010.
A panel appointed by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon issued a 2011 report that did not conclusively determine how the disease, which had not been documented in Haiti in nearly a century before the outbreak, was introduced to the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the evidence strongly suggested UN peacekeepers were the source.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/23/us-government-dismissal-haitians-cholera-lawsuit