As you may already know, the cholera outbreak was introduced to Haiti by Nepalese troops who were part of a U.N. peacekeeping mission. It had spread across the country from October 2010 to May 2017, and it was the first modern large scale outbreak of cholera.
Last month, in this article published on the Miami Herald, Jacqueline Charles pointed out how Trump continues to say ‘No’ to cholera request:
Earlier this fall, as the United Nations’ blue-helmet peacekeepers began their withdrawal from Haiti, many of their countries rushed to the beleaguered nation’s aid, turning over millions of dollars in unspent peacekeeping dollars to help eliminate a deadly cholera epidemic. Some countries, faced with roadblocks in their parliaments, reprogrammed dollars. Others, like Norway, added an additional $465,000 to its $335,000 refund. But the United States, which had already stated its opposition to U.N. Secretary General António Guterres’ request over reassigning $11 million in unspent Haiti peacekeeping money, is refusing even though the Senate Appropriations Committee gave it the green light in September. The Senate provision allows the Trump administration to use the unspent peacekeeping dollars for Haiti’s cholera plan.
An information confirmed by a tweet by The Haiti Advocacy Working Group (HAWG):
“People in the UK or the US can forget about people in Haiti, but the people in Haiti cannot forget people in the …” It is time for the @U.S. and the @UK to contribute towards the @UN's fund for Haiti's cholera victims. #CholeraJustice #EndHaitiCholera
https://t.co/JzriMHjHjy— Haiti Advocacy (@haiti_advocacy) November 21, 2017
The article on The Guardian reports that Human rights lawyers have accused the UK and other large donors of blocking the release of a multimillion-dollar UN fund to provide relief to victims of a cholera epidemic that has killed 10,000 people in Haiti:
In June, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, asked member states to allow him to repurpose $40.5m (£30m) of leftover money to the Haiti cholera fund, which he said could have an “immediate impact in saving lives”. The appeal to reallocate unspent money designated for Haiti in 2015-16 has met with strong resistance from major donors. None of the five UN security council’s permanent members, which includes the US and the UK, approved the proposed funding reallocation. The UN Haiti cholera multi-partner trust fund, which gathered more than $2m, now lies almost empty.
Earlier this month, the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) in Port-au-Prince, released a press statement on this important topic:
On the one year anniversary of the UN’s historic apology for its role in sparking Haiti’s devastating cholera epidemic, victims appealed to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to follow through on commitments made last year to end cholera transmission and provide remedies. Victims also plan to gather in peaceful protest at 11 am EST outside UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince.
The New Approach promised $400 million; $200 million to end cholera transmission and another $200 million for material assistance to victims. One year later, the plan is funded at only 3%. As a result, the deadliest cholera epidemic in the world continues, and the UN has made no progress towards supporting the families of the more than 10,000 people killed and 800,000 infected by the disease.
The Secretary-General’s apology and launch of the New Approach one year ago came following six years of UN denials and stonewalling of its role in the outbreak, despite overwhelming evidence that the disease was introduced through improper MINUSTAH waste disposal. The UN’s handling of the epidemic has been widely criticized, including by the UN’s own human rights experts, and led to a class action against the UN by cholera victims.
Haitians deserve respect, and now denying them to money that was once promised is really a shame…
