The United Nations has formally rejected all claims for compensation from victims of the cholera outbreak in Haiti that has killed nearly 8,000 people. Evidence suggests cholera was introduced to Haiti through leaking sewage pipes at a camp housing Nepalese peacekeepers, but the UN has never acknowledged responsibility. It says it is immune from such claims under the UN's Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the UN.I bring this up because of the timing of the UN's denial. If it's based on Article 29 of the Convention, why take months before saying so, and why spend months before that not only denying its liability but obfuscating it? The evidence was clear within weeks of the outbreak's start late in 2010.
The UN could have simply said, "Oops, too bad. We're really sorry, we won't do it again and we'll put our best-paid health bureaucrats on the job of fighting the cholera we tracked in. But under Article 29, cholera victims and their families get no compensation."
It would have been blunt, ugly, and unpleasant, but at least it would have been honest.
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