23 February 2013 — HLLN

 

Recommended HLLN Links: “The accused UN cannot investigate itself” – Ezili Dantò, Oct 30, 2010 interview with Yves Point Du Jour http://bit.ly/bKoR1g

 

Haiti elections and Cholera interview with Ezili Dantò of HLLN, Oct. 22, 2010, Gorilla Radio http://bit.ly/hpcT3g

 

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– Excerpt: HLLN complaint against the US occupational forces for bringing cholera to Haiti

 

– The Alien Tort Statute (28 U.S.C. § 1350) of the United States Code reads: “The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” This statute is notable for allowing United States courts to hear human rights cases brought by foreign citizens for conduct committed outside the United States.

 

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HLLN complaint against the US occupational forces for bringing cholera to Haiti

 

Ezili Dantò’s Note:

 

HLLN has never subscribed to the callous and profiting-on-misery notion of letting the UN independently investigate itself while Haiti’s people die unmercifully. (The accused UN cannot investigate itself” – Ezili Dantò, Oct 30, 2010 interview with Yves Point Du Jour http://bit.ly/bKoR1g; Haiti elections and Cholera interview with Ezili Dantò of HLLN, Oct. 22, 2010, Gorilla Radio http://bit.ly/hpcT3g )

 

On February 21, 2013, the United Nations officially rejected legal responsibility for damage claims to Haiti cholera victims ( http://yhoo.it/157Nd04 ; UN Capitalizing on Cholera: playing arsonists and firemen http://bit.ly/12EQiU7 ; U.N. Says it Will Not Pay Compensation for Haiti’s Cholera Victims http://ti.me/Zxx8Bx .)

 

As the UN has rejected or been non-responsive to virtually every human right violation claims made by Haitians since the US occupation began in 2004, we at HLLN had no past UN behavior that provided a logical basis to expect a different answer from the UN other than the one it announced yesterday.

 

In the coming posts, HLLN shall post an Ezili Dantò interview for Black Agenda Report that addresses the expected and continual UN denial of accountability in Haiti and excepts from our non-colonial complaint against the US/UN occupiers for importing cholera to Haiti.

 

Someone asked today how does HLLN respond to the denial of the Concannon administrative letter of demand to the UN after 15-months of “UN deliberations.” I referred to this interview done on the Yves Point Du Jour show the week the cholera epidemic was imported to Haiti (http://bit.ly/bKoR1g), the Haiti elections and Cholera interview on Oct. 22, 2010 for Gorilla Radio )http://bit.ly/hpcT3g) and also said this:

 

“The US and thus for now the Obama administration runs the UN. How does the US fare in keeping Blacks healthy in the US, in Africa…why would anyone think the UN acting for the US would care how many Blacks their imported disease killed? They own the law, military, media, banks, why not our human rights?”

 

Below is an excerpt from the HLLN complaint written not long after the cholera importation. I think the announcement of the UN claiming absolute immunity – U.N. Says it Will Not Pay Compensation for Haiti’s Cholera Victims http://ti.me/Zxx8Bx – is a good time as any to begin publishing the Haiti non- colonial legal narrative of this issue.

 

Try as we may no deep pocket law firm or Hollywood celebrity is willing to help fund the non-colonial Haiti narrative on the US occupational forces illegal occupation in Haiti and the deadly fruits of their rotten presence unlawfully authorized by Gerald Latortue/UN SOFA agreement in 2004

 

HLLN has not found a courageous law firm, with staff and resources, to help Haitians like us take on the class action suit categories harmed by the US occupation forces in Haiti. No one yet willing to break with precedent, set new legal precedent and work outside the orbit of the usual suspects taking on every Haiti human rights case, raising celebrity monies and losing each and every one with a whimper. It is as it should be: no white savior stakeholder in the capitalist system will put game changing resources behind a Haitian who is not working FOR them. So, HLLN publishes parts of our complaint that one day, if not in this generation than the next, Haiti shall one day use to bring the US and its employee, the UN, before independent courts of law.)

 

The UN justifies its presence in Haiti through a Status of forces agreement (SOFA) agreement supposedly signed for Haiti by former UN employee, Gerarld Latortue, and presumably ratified under the reign of the puppet Haitians governments elected to power since 2004 by the Washington coup d’etat forces and their international cohorts.

 

HLLN address this illegality in our complaint against the US for bringing in the UN to uphold instability and against the UN for unleashing cholera, thus:

 

– Excerpt from HLLN complaint against the US occupational forces for bringing cholera to Haiti

 

“Article 5, Par. 23 of the SOFA provides that “MINUSTAH and the Government shall cooperate with respect to sanitary services and shall extend to each other the fullest cooperation in matters concerning health, particularly in respect to the control of communicable diseases in accordance with international conventions.”

 

The UN‘s “the purpose of immunity is so that diplomats are not harassed…however this does not mean that there should be more privileges and immunities abandoned because they serve certain purposes for the UN.” Immunity does not mean impunity. Liability to Haitians for cholera is not “harassment,” it would be UN accountability.

 

Moreover, it ought to be noted by the Court that the SOFA broad immunity given to UN was:

 

A) Signed by a transitional defacto Haiti government, supported by the US/UN and unelected by the Haiti masses. Haiti’s duly elected Prime Minster, Yvon Neptune, was put in jail for years while the defacto Prime Minister signed the SOFA.

 

Gerard Latortue, a resident of Boca Raton Florida was the UN/US supported, defacto Prime Minister, unconstitutionally installed after the departure of President Aristide following the 2004 US-backed-coup/kidnapping. Gerald Latortue who signed SOFA legitimizing the UN occupation of Haiti was a career UN employee and unelected by the Haiti masses.

 

The US (and, to a lesser extent France and Canada) played a critical role in financing the counter-revolutionary Haiti opposition that destabilized Aristide‘s second tenure in office. It was a US rendition plane, along with US Special Forces, that escorted – deported – Haiti‘s duly elected President Aristide to the Central Africa Republic on February 29, 2004. The US‘s own State Department translator verified that the democratically elected Haiti president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, did not voluntarily resigned.

 

Instead of coming in to restore the democratically elected President and duly appointed Prime Minister, the UN/MINUSTAH mission, which took over from the US-commanded multi-national force that came into Haiti per UN Resolution 1329 after February 29, 2004, has been a partisan force to solidify the rule of the Haiti oligarchy, private investor interests not Haiti‘s masses and to return the Duvalierists back to power through the facade of democratic elections.

 

Since then, under the UN and US occupation of Haiti, Haiti‘s largest political party, the Lavalas party of President Aristide, has been forbidden to participate in elections.

 

B) The SOFA‘s Article 105 Convention immunity clause, giving the MINUSTAH troops absolute immunity, is tempered by the provisions at article 54 and 55 of SOFA which requires that immunity for third party personal injury claims against UN soldiers are subject to there being an adequate dispute resolution mechanism.

 

SOFA‘s individual claims procedure for third party personal injury claims that falls outside of operational necessity, is inadequate thus operates as a waiver of UN immunity. Or, at least requires UN to exercise its duty to waive in order to avoid injustice to Haitians and not impede the course of justice…” – (Excerpt: HLLN complaint against the US occupational forces for bringing cholera to Haiti)

 

HAITIANS HAVE A RIGHT TO LIFE, HEALTH, LEGAL REDRESS, ACCESS TO COURTS AND A FAIR AND IMPARTIAL HEARING

 

“It is a principle of International Law that any violation of an international obligation that has caused damages triggers the duty to make adequate amends.” — Inter-American Court of Human Rights, (Case of the Miguel Castro Prison, Merits, Reparations, and Cost, Judgment, Int-Am. Ct. Hum Rts. (ser. C) No. 160, par. 335 (Nov. 25, 2006)

 

“Introduction I. NATURE OF HLLN ACTION

 

1.The majority of Haiti’s population of ten million lack access to sanitary infrastructure and clean water. In late October 2010 the United Nations (“UN”) Nepalese contingent from the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (“MINUSTAH”) brought cholera to Haiti, a novel, virulent strain previously unknown in the Western Hemisphere. Before the arrival of the UN soldiers, Haiti had not had a single case of cholera in a century, if ever. Haitian had no antibodies to act as immune defense against the UN-imported lethal biogerm. The UN was well aware of Haiti’s lack of sanitary infrastructure and higher needs for clean water, yet failed to maintain sanitary conditions at their base. The UN had a greater responsibility not to negligently nor recklessly add to the public health challenges of a country they were sent to protect. The UN’s complete lack of care is impunity that the laws granting immunity do not support. The UN had a greater responsibility not to negligently nor recklessly poison the people with a vicious foreign germ effectively acting, given the unique public health circumstances in Haiti, as a weapon of mass destruction – in two years killing over 8,000 Haitians and infecting over 620,000 of the population with 200 new people infected each day.

 

2.The UN organization had a greater responsibility – given they are the guardians and arbiters of human rights norms, standards and guidelines in the world, given their mission in Haiti as well as their documented knowledge of Haiti’s health challenges, to be more accountable and vigilant to the population they were sent to protect. The UN is in violation of the explicit purposes of the Charter of the United Nations promoting and encouraging respect for human rights.

 

3.As evidenced through the international sanitary rules and conventions incorporated within the Status of Force Agreement (SOFA) agreement between Haiti and the UN, it is clear that contemporary law of nations has expanded to prohibit a tort such as the reckless transmission of a contagious disease and cover-up of the outbreaks source. Multilateral treaties, customary international law as well as domestic prohibitions on transmission of anthrax, HIV, syphilis, cholera and other highly contagious diseases evidence specific, universal, obligatory prohibition of official transmission of infectious diseases.

 

4.Under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO), conventions and agreements, including, inter alia, the International Health Regulation 2005, nearly all the world’s nations have banned together to ensure the containment and global eradication of infectious diseases. Containing contagious disease is a definable, universal and obligatory norm for the UN member nations. UN peacekeepers and missions are fundamentally accountable to the global, multilateral consensus and efforts of UN member nations to participate in globally containing and eradicating the spread of contagious diseases. The UN is not a super state with powers and immunities that exceeds the powers of those it represents. The commitment to contain communicable diseases and hold those responsible for their spread applies to the UN mission in Haiti.”

 

********************************************** Forwarded by Ezili’s Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network **********************************************

 

Featured HLLN links on Cholera: “The accused UN cannot investigate itself” – Ezili Dantò, Oct 30, 2010 interview with Yves Point Du Jour http://bit.ly/bKoR1g

 

Haiti elections and Cholera interview with Ezili Dantò of HLLN, Oct. 22, 2010, Gorilla Radio http://bit.ly/hpcT3g

 

Haiti: Ezili Dantò on Wash Post Cholera editorial Washington Justice For Haiti http://bit.ly/Kp57D8

 

Haiti elections and Cholera, interview with Ezili Dantò of HLLN, Oct. 22, 2010, Gorilla Radio http://bit.ly/hpcT3g

 

Ezili’s HLLN denounces massacres of Haiti Vodouist, holds UN responsible http://bit.ly/mRLrhf

 

Haiti Message on UN responsibility for importing cholera – Demand a stop to the denials http://bit.ly/jjqWlj )

 

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“The UN plays the role of both arsonist and fireman in Haiti’s cholera epidemic. UN announces a rehashed 10-year plan for clean water that is unfunded. Kristof’s white savior bridge characters, filled with conflicts of interests, declare cautious success. They help throttle justice for Haitians, put bandages on plunder, help prolong Black and indigenous world suffering. UN plans for Haiti are not solutions. The UN is the problem.” — Ezili Dantò at UN Capitalizing on Cholera: playing arsonists and firemen http://bit.ly/12EQiU7

 

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“Washington Justice For Haiti: In support of Paul Farmer’s pharmaceuticals and the Farmer groups – Brian Concannon/IDJH – asking the UN to judge itself guilty on behalf of Haiti cholera victims, Washington Post opines, justice for the Haiti cholera victims would be collectively awarding $40million to Paul Farmer pharmaceuticals for cholera vaccines http://bit.ly/Kp57D8

 

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HLLN analysis of Times’ cholera article http://bit.ly/X1TVD4

 

Haiti Message on UN responsibility for importing cholera http://bit.ly/jjqWlj

 

Demand a stop to the denials.

 

The UN is accountable for not controlling its own troops’ hygiene, for importing a communicable disease, for not controlling that communicable disease, for the damage done, the lives lost, the Haiti farmers and Artibonite breadbasket that’s been contaminated. The UN’s failure to properly dispose of its human fecal waste, is not a “state action” subject to state immunity. It’s a personal injury inflicted upon a vulnerable people the UN says its mandated to protect. The UN is paying itself almost $1 billion ($860million) dollars per year for said “protection.” The UN is not above the law, immune for violating international sanitary standards, nor for failing to control the spread of its own disease.

 

In a nutshell, the UN imported the deadly cholera disease to Haiti, but blames the fatal injury on the victim’s pre-existing conditions. (Blaming their injustice on their defenseless victims is not new for the UN forces in Haiti.) —Ezili Dantò of HLLN http://bit.ly/jjqWlj