Anti-UN Protests Turn Deadly in Haiti
VOA News
16 November 2010
At least one person is dead in Haiti from violent protests against U.N. peacekeepers who residents blame for causing a deadly cholera epidemic.
A demonstrator was shot and killed by U.N. peacekeepers Monday in Quartier-Morin, located near Haiti's second-largest city, Cap-Haitien.
U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal have been blamed by the demonstrators for bringing the waterborne disease to the Caribbean nation, where 917 people have died from it and more than 14,000 others have been hospitalized since the outbreak was first reported.
The U.N. mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH, says the demonstrations have been timed by political agitators ahead of upcoming November 28 presidential and legislative elections.
The U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator in Haiti, Nigel Fisher, told reporters Monday that cholera has been detected in every province.
Fisher said Haiti has never had a cholera outbreak before and that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified this strain as one that has its origins in South Asia. But he said it is nearly impossible to identify a precise source.
He added that the U.N. has started a campaign to ease concerns about the location of treatment centers and help people understand that having such a facility nearby is to their benefit. He said experts are working on how to handle infected corpses, and how to protect people going to polling booths.
The World Health Organization says the bacteria that causes cholera will be in the country for years.
Cholera is spread through fecal-contaminated food and water. It causes vomiting and diarrhea, and can quickly lead to severe dehydration and death. Health workers fear an explosion of the disease in Port-au-Prince, where hundreds of thousands of people have been living in squalid tent cities since the January earthquake devastated the country.
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