And welcome again to rewind today we rewind to 2013 when after the earthquake of 2010 a cholera epidemic hit haiti and killed thousands the outbreak was the worst in recent history and as al jazeera has fault lines team found out the source of the outbreak was surprising to many including it seems to those initially responsible later well find out if there is hope for haiti to redick a cholera once and for all as it has been for the worlds wealthiest countries but 1st lets watch haiti in the time of cholera. Haiti october 2010 looking back at a hospital in a small rural town north of the capital. These were the 1st victims of a horrific unknown disease in a country still reeling from a devastating earthquake. Patients were dying in the space of a few hours children were specially vulnerable. Aljazeera was the 1st news channel on the scene. In the following days and weeks we tracked the epidemic as it ripped across the country. Leaving dozens then hundreds and soon thousands of haitians dead in its wake feel wide reported from war zones for years and from haiti since the day after the earthquake they received 43 bodies but this was the new disaster that shocked the world cholera could somehow arrived in haiti. And it wasnt long before rumors that u. N. Nepalese peacekeepers were involved led us to a base on the banks of the countrys largest river what are you taking why youre getting there but were not being told exactly whats going on here but this study smells like sewage dirty toilets right there in the liquid seems to be draining into this river just a few meters away that flows into the nearby town of nearby they. Back then it felt like that stumbled on the scene of a crime. Now after a series of investigations including by the u. N. Itself it seems thats exactly what did happen. In the more than 2 years since we 1st visited the site almost everything that we suspected from the scenes that we found now appears to be true scientists have said that the cholera found in that river is almost identical to a strain of the disease found in the poll before those soldiers were deployed even bill clinton the u. N. Special envoy to haiti has said that u. N. Peacekeepers from that base all the likely source of the disease in haiti but the one thing that hasnt happened is that the u. N. Hasnt accepted any kind of liability for bringing the epidemic to this country in fact at this point they still wont even talk about. It. Its been more than 2 years since cholera appeared in haiti. And were joining into one of the most isolated areas of the country. Communities up here in the mountains surrounding the arctic river almost completely cut off from basic services. Up here catching any kind of disease is a serious matter. Is impossible really to madge and how somebody could get along like this to medical facilities within a few hours to save lives from cholera this is the kind of scenario here the realities are many of them dont see what i weigh now to a funeral the very top of this mountain for a man who didnt make him. When he died from cholera various fusion was 64 years old. He was the leader of the community in this tiny mountaintop village and the father of 3. Very use fell ill just days ago. From his house its about 5 hours walk to the nearest clinic. I get the only level they are. Making and you buy that for me. As a u. N. Helicopter flies over the funeral were told that nobody here has any idea how the outbreak started. In villages like this across the country this is a scene thats been repeated thousands of times for use is the latest victim of a disease unknown in haiti 2 years ago. But its now a leading cause of death in the country. For reeses death from color i wont actually be counted in any official statistics there are no ministry of Health Personnel who are know about this or n. G. O. S this is just one example of how the death toll from this epidemic could be much higher than anyone knows cholera victims have gathered for a monthly meeting to discuss ways of dealing with the epidemic in their midst it might hear want that were little as it goes set of not that big deal to do yeah not be wooed lip you than at the other greek wouldnt did at that me want to that mashallah whatever lot of them up look it up but im ok who gave whatnot through someone new get at image quickly that mitt been dad is talk you moved but dug him in their lap youll like every one of this meeting has either been infected with the disease or had a Family Member dine out im so how many people here actually know somebody that is dying of color who look more you going to get hot not me all you know my new we are muck why their money number is the meeting adjourns were told of an urgent new case an elderly woman living close by threes in a Critical Condition santillan yeah hill lead is losing strength fast for her relatives a worried the journey down the mountain might kill her the sun is very bright to this time a day sir they were going to wait until later weve offered to give them a left than drive the more the way down the mountain to the nearest color a Treatment Center they decide to make a break for its taking of in times to carry her over the rice fields along month parts to where the row begins the this is haiti in the time of collar communities living in fair each day and you race for survival sandhill year did reach the clinic before losing her strength but in the end it wasnt enough. A few weeks later she succumbed to cholera a body taken back home and buried in the mountains. While the death toll from color continues to rise a new fight for justice has begun. Is the most famous lawyer in haiti. Hes one landmark victories for victims of political persecution. Today hes collecting medical records. With very limited resources mario is representing thousands of haitians whove been affected by color its the case of his life theyre trying to sue the United Nations not to do this with money we dont have and dont have a lot of own good cause and i guess we have only thought of. The lawsuits filed in november 2011 claims that u. N. Failures to screen its soldiers for color and follow International Rules on Waste Disposal constitute gross negligence what are they doing are they gathering yeah yeah yeah its based on the uns own investigation which concluded that the nepalese base leaking sewage into the river was a likely source of the outbreak manual thank you but was. Not didnt well. I dont but it never got out. And its composed of thousands of stories of personal loss each one documented by mario and his team to. The next meeting is in me about a. Lot shot. Boston are those if the town thats home to the u. N. Base where the disease is known to have started. And we have to pulls husband was one of the very 1st to die. She doesnt know exactly where hes buried back then the death toll was so high the bodies were being dumped in mass graves. Today she and her daughter lisa that filing a new claim. July is. The familys only son fritz now dined 3 weeks ago from colorado he was 34 not a man or woman but inventing in that fashion you need to imbed you know what was the main reason for the big money the movie it was an important human being when you needed the only thing the minute we didnt come. Back at their headquarters in downtown Port Au Prince the fruits of the lawyers painstaking labor is kept in a dusty storeroom still waiting for the day it will be used in court. These are all the case files in here yes we got our cases they fess 5000. 00 fire not only were filled with foam would not arise they said we. Will give you are not. Always. Going to die i dont know when there was a time will be but its been more than a year from what in here and youve heard nothing nothing nothing faced with the u. N. Silence the lawyers decided to expand the lawsuit. Adding more names to the thousands who already filed a complaint un have doors for un must respond but the point what human rights i know will continue to fight until they dont respond will file complaints for all people. The 2010. Quake killed more than 220000 people. Those who lost their lives are remembered each year with dignitaries from around the world coming to pay their respects. But for those who have dined and continue to die from the cholera epidemic there is no day of mourning. And even senior u. N. Officials staying silent on whether the victims families deserve any compensation for their lost you said the u. N. Introduced cholera to haiti do you think all of those deaths this nearly 8000 people i mean thats a decision someone else thats make now i think the most important thing is that the u. N. Has paul farmer to oversee the response weve got. The. Infection and mortality rate cut in half and i think it can be contained so im encouraged by. Some people already dead thanks the president is. Going to show he is one who should answer for those people getting ready to enter the fray with you mr president thank you. Well this ceremony is over in the cavalcade is now leaving and we still havent gotten any answers bill clinton theyre saying its not for him to decide whether or not the u. N. Is liable but hes actually said that the u. N. Brought the disease to this island so if he can answer the question about accountability its not really clear who can. On next stop u. N. Headquarters in haiti. Here at least well be able to find out why marios clients have been waiting over a year for response to the lawsuits weve been promised an interview with nigel fisher the head of the u. N. Mission in haiti thats known by its acronym for high as that nigel fishes office it doesnt look like its going to happen but it was proving difficult to get his hands us do we can to try to catch up with him just as we were about to give up this is natural fish is the man weve been trying to find often and it seems hes finally turned up. So well see if hes actually going to answer questions remember me sebastian from al jazeera so nice to see you again very well thank you sorry to keep so i try to sort of get some of its. I mean we we really needed as much time as possible but its been ok to try but im asking some questions now. So let me start with the one thing that we found difficult to talk to about. With senior Officials Say is the question of liability nobody seems to be able to talk about that even what was what was the truth we cannot why is this as an official here in haiti and a civil servant. Right now i cannot speak about it who can we get on from what i think it has to be at u. N. Headquarters in new york it is i dont know whether youll get an answer of this process at this point but the people who are reviewing this all right headquarters there in the Legal Department theyre working with the secretary Generals Office on this. We followed nigels advice. It seemed like the only way of getting any answers for the families in haiti was to head to where loose decisions a seemingly taken. New york. Before we even arrived at u. N. Headquarters we got word from our ears legal partners in the us that a decision had already been made and they sent me an email the shortly before they made the public announcement they sent an email with a letter to the letter was one paragraph about how the u. N. Was sorry about the cholera and the harm that it caused several paragraphs about all of the things they are doing to combat cholera and then a paragraph at the end saying that they were not going to respond justly to the cholera victims human rights lawyer Brian Concannon says hed been expecting the u. N. Would try to avoid paying compensation that the families for the lack of any explanation that him completely off gone is also a slap in the face to the to the 660000 haitians who have contracted cholera and the 8000. 00 who died so far at least their families. The u. N. Announced this decision to the world in a brief 5 minute statement there was no official press conference and since then as in haiti there had been no further comment to the media about ive asked several officials who can actually talk to us inside this building and the one person weve been told we can interview is a spokesperson for the secretary general claims found to be outside the scope of the section 29 of the convention are not receivable the consequence of the finding that a claim is not receivable is that the claim will not receive further consideration by the organization. That stain was very brief it was this is a brief statement and so legal statement and thats about all i want to say but why is the claim not receivable while its not a United Nations product as of this custom public with the. Tells of our responses to claims against your organization so you dont have to explain themselves no youre saying that not only do they not get compensation but you dont even have to explain why but thats exactly what i said thats the management in lives policy what would you say to a Family Member in haiti who has had somebody die. As a result of this disease well i would basically i would basically say as a u. N. Employer as a human being as well i would simply say im really sorry about your loss im really sorry that cholera happened we dont exactly know what the origins are but were working as hard as we can to address we want to know what the origins of the Scientific Community is united are our panel told us that it was due to a confluence of circumstances including being brought to haiti and that most likely by u. N. Weapons keepers thats what it said wait a minute so the u. N. Still maintains that nepalese soldiers werent the most likely source of color in haiti we asked one of their own scientists they found a range of evidence pointing towards the u. N. Peacekeepers including that the type of cholera was very similar to a recent outbreak in nepal since the time of our report our conclusions have been significantly strengthened the nepal strain of cholera westphal the sequence and compare it to the haitian strain and when they got that direct comparison it was found that of the 4000000 base pairs in colorado there was only one base pair that with different between the 2 strains and genetics we consider that an exact match as far as we know all the claims that they are giving us is not a non receivable thats under international law. Stonewalled by this official we designed it there must be someone at u. N. Headquarters who could explain the organizations decision we spoke to the press office before security could shut us down. Eventually we found a more senior. Spokesperson i mean is there anyone else who can because seriously he was not he was literally reading from a piece of paper it seems a little odd to me that you were interviewing me about the interview you had with my text or we were trying to get answers and he wasnt able to give any hint he just said its something that i dont have answers to well why do you think it would be any different with me or anyone who would have it was a. Question you asked me that question 3 times now. I think you know what you know is true so i dont think you should be quite polite if you switched off. And dont you think dont you think that. At every turn the story from u. N. Officials was the same outright refusal to accept any responsibility yet a complete inability to explain why. It was the same from haiti to new york. From those on the ground to those at the very top but the secretary general why explanation is there for the fact that theres no compensation being paid to the families of the victims and i think i have made it quite clear that the reason why this case is the deceiver and it was your decision ultimately whose decision was it in the end was this you just like this is all that they store or. Care for close range of doing its the right decision. I think. For the families of the victim wasnt sure it wasnt of the lady that still so he was saying theres no possibility its all of speaking with him one Legal Counsel. Following the secretary generals advice i did put several calls in but was told that the uns Legal Counsel was unavailable for comment so we spotted the secretary general again in this room were going to try to catch many comes out. And. Nothing but im going to access it all the time so thank you so you said we could get up to the. Existing. Its a. Good thing. To know you have no commitment to the city council if you think you. Were just being told that the media office has said that they dont actually want us back in the building because of displeasure of the fact that weve been asking questions to officials in the hallways they said they were effectively banned from filming in the United Nations complex. On an intellectual level but the uns rejection of our claims was expected but on an emotional level the uns rejection is still very hard to take because youre left thinking about people in who lost their their child. The family in sodo who lost a father and mother and are condemned to generational poverty and you think that their chances of getting justice have been reduced. So. Levy. In haiti along with. The costs of burying their dead have left the family who we met with mario and his lawyers civilian death. Their sons grave is in a cemetery close to the house. For the death of the last male in the family has left them with no reliable income theyve just had to pull his 11 year old daughter answer school. In. The. When i do you know when the uns decision hasnt even been made when we 1st met this family. But it seemed they had a sense of what was coming in. Memory. Related you know but then. Remember. We gave up on among listen. Because. Apart from anger over compensation what may be more worrying to officials back in new york is the last thing damage in haiti to the reputation of an organization thats supposed to stand for justice and equality around the world. People you are minister. You got i mean whimsy for munaf only law. Minister. In 2016 bank human the same u. N. Secretary general questioned in our report finally acknowledged that the u. N. Did play a role in the 1st outbreak and called for a new set of actions in haiti but will that be enough speaking with us today as a human rights lawyer to update us on the situation today the u. S. Eradication efforts have been wholly inadequate we have seen cholera rates been brought down after the immediate surge of cases but they sense gone back up again and in 2016 weve seen cholera cases at a higher rate than we saw in 20142050 that was even before Hurricane Matthew struck and now inside. There in Haiti Cholera is is an enormous emergency the u. N. Did launch in 2012 a plan to eliminate cholera from haiti together with the haitian government but that plan has only been funded at 18 percent as of earlier this year and so for several years its been stagnant there hasnt been enough money to even treat the incoming patients that were trying to seek care and collar treatments on toures we sought Treatment Centers being shut down and so the need for robust funding is continues to be enormous and incredibly grave what we have seen though is that now theres been the launch of a new plan that focuses more more directly on getting color under control and i think were hopeful that over the next 2 years if this plan is immediately funded that we can see a long overdue drop in the death rate and haiti communities are also asking for compensation for people who have died for people who have suffered and they continue to field a very direct impacts of color on their daily life today. 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