Haiti sues the UN for cholera outbreak
By Carmen Russell-Sluchansky
Victims of a Haiti cholera epidemic filed a lawsuit Wednesday demanding compensation from the United Nations over an outbreak that killed more than 8,300 people.
The petition, filed on behalf of a sample group of five Haitians at the New York district court, said at least 679,000 other people had fallen ill with cholera since the outbreak began in October 2010. There had been no cholera in Haiti for at least 150 years until it was brought by UN peacekeeping troops from Nepal, lawyer Ira Kurzban told a news conference. The United Nations said in February it was legally immune from action over the epidemic. We talk to Ira Kurzban, one of the attorneys for the Haitian victims of the cholera epidemic.