Last week, while there were welcome news of positive indicators

in cooperation between the Associated Institutions of the United Nations and the Caribbean Community Secretariat, there was also the re-emergence of blame for the UN in the horrific outbreak in 2010 of the cholera epidemic that has to date claimed more than 8,000 lives.
The UN has been consistent in rejecting responsibility for the outbreak of the dreaded disease, which Haitian human rights and other civil society organizations have traced to the behaviour of UN peacekeeping troops in the careless disposal of human waste dumped into an open pit, and finally leaked into widely used waterways.
What has reaffirmed the contention of UN responsibility for this human tragedy, with thousands more potential cholera victims, is the findings of a group of international scientists who studied the circumstances surrounding the origin and spread of the cholera epidemic.
The conclusion of the UN involvement by the scientists that the origin could be traced  to the international body’s peacekeeping force, in particular a then team from Nepal, could pose a serious challenge to the continuing rejection of responsibility.
The UN has summoned to its rescue the claim of enshrined “legal immunity” from prosecution. However, the families of dead victims from the cholera epidemic, as well as afflicted  survivors, have made clear their resolve to take their case to the United States Supreme Court, with a US-based human rights organization spearheading the initiative.
Of relevance at this stage is to note the continuing public silence of the Caribbean Community as a whole. Surely, there must be some concern that it could appropriately express with the UN Secretary-General, considering that Haiti is a functioning member of the regional integration movement.
We, therefore, anxiously wait to learn what, if any, response may be forthcoming from the CARICOM Secretariat, or ANY of the Community’s 15 governments.