Page 12 - ATODAY
P. 12
A12
WORLD NEWSFriday 4 March 2016
Haiti: Mexico seals record in lopsided
Cholera quietly still kills dozens a month gunbattle that killed at least 42
DAVID McFADDEN tober 2010, has sickened lieves Haiti, with interna- MARK STEVENSON
more than 770,000 peo- tional help, can eliminate Associated Press
Associated Press ple, or about 7 percent of cholera by 2022. But he MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s transparency watchdog
the population, and killed acknowledged the effort is denied an appeal to release autopsy reports on 42 sus-
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti more than 9,200. So far this badly underfinanced. pects killed by federal police in a gunbattle last year,
year, it has sickened more Only $307 million, or less backing the government’s position with a decision that
(AP) — More than a dozen than 6,000 and is killing an than 14 percent, has been drew criticism from human rights groups Wednesday.
average of 37 people a funded of a $2.2 billion One police officer died in what authorities described
people reclined on cots in- month, according to the plan announced in 2013 to as a clash with drug cartel suspects in the western state
latest government figures. eradicate cholera from the of Michoacan on May 22, but the lopsided 42-1 death
side the clinic in the Haitian toll drew suspicion. The National Institute for Information
Access last month ruled against a freedom-of-informa-
capital, a few so sick they tion request filed by The Associated Press in October.
The quasi-independent agency ruled the information
were receiving intravenous should be kept as a state secret for five years.
The institute also took the government’s side in denying
infusions to rehydrate their there was any evidence that human rights violations
occurred at the ranch where the shooting occurred.
bodies and spare them an It said it had reviewed the 12 volumes of reports in the
case file on the events in Tanhuato, Michoacan, and
A man wades through a garbage filled water canal, pulling his bag after collecting empty bottles essentially said the evidence indicated federal police
to sell in downtown of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Scientists believe cholera was introduced to the coun- acted correctly.
try’s biggest river by inadequately treated sewage from a base of U.N. peacekeepers. “It was not possible to find any data that would allow
one to conclude ... that there was any arbitrary, sum-
(AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) mary or illegal execution” at the ranch, the agency
said in its ruling. “There was no indication, in an initial re-
agonizing death. The persistence of the island shared by Haiti and view, of any suspicious or unclear conduct on the part
The worst off one recent preventable disease has the Dominican Republic of security forces.”
morning was a thin and alarmed public health ex- over a decade, according More broadly, the institute said that after reviewing the
spectral man, weak from perts who fear that atten- to a November report from case files, “there was no indication of acts that would
the vomiting and diarrhea tion and resources have the U.N. constitute serious rights violations” of any kind.
caused by cholera. But all been diverted by newer In the first year of the out- The Tanhuato deaths were one of three cases of suspi-
were expected to survive. challenges, including the break, more than 200 in- ciously lopsided death tolls in Mexico cited in a report
The disease spread by con- regional spread of the Zika ternational organizations issued Wednesday by the Inter-American Human Rights
taminated water is easily virus and the political crisis were providing money and Commission, a body of the Organization of American
treatable but can lead to that recently halted Haiti’s expertise to combat the ill- States.
death within hours if unat- elections. World Health ness in Haiti. Now, there are “These situations call for a review of the use of force
tended. Organization spokesman fewer than a dozen, Fran- in Mexico in keeping with the principles of legality, ab-
“However I got it, I really Gregory Hartl said cholera cois said. solute necessity, and proportionality,” the commission
hope I never get this sick is now considered “en- “Having far fewer deaths said. “Furthermore, it demands the adoption and im-
again,” another patient, demic” in Haiti, meaning has led a lot of people to plementation of accountability measures by a body
Estin Josue, said as he re- it’s an illness that occurs believe the situation is no that is independent of all security forces.”
covered inside an immac- regularly. Others have not- longer urgent,” Francois The OAS commission also criticized what it called “a
ulately clean and orderly ed the cholera bacterium said. “But if we had the re- gradual regression in terms of active transparency poli-
treatment center in down- could very well be firmly sources, people wouldn’t cies and public information regarding the deaths of ci-
town Port-au-Prince run by established in Haiti’s rivers, be dying at all.” vilians” in regard to such cases. It said Mexico’s military
Gheskio Centers, a Haitian estuaries and even coastal Cholera was first detected forces have stopped publicly reporting the number of
medical organization. waters. “Once it is estab- in central Haiti’s Artibonite suspects killed by troops.
Josue and his fellow pa- lished in a country’s aquat- Valley. Researchers say The federal Attorney General’s Office denied the AP’s
tients were relatively lucky, ic reservoir it is extremely there is ample evidence initial request in October for ballistics and autopsy re-
getting sick close to the difficult to eradicate,” said the disease was introduced ports on those killed in Tanhuato, arguing the informa-
country’s first permanent Afsar Ali, a researcher at to the country’s biggest riv- tion might affect an investigation.
cholera treatment center. the University of Florida who er by inadequately treated The AP appealed the denial under a rule that permits
Many others are not as for- has led studies of cholera in sewage from a base of redacted versions of reports to be released in cases in-
tunate as Haiti continues Haiti for years. U.N. peacekeepers from volving serious human rights violations. But the institute
to wrestle with the worst Dr. Joseph Donald Fran- Nepal, one of the units that said it found no evidence of such violations.
outbreak of the disease cois, who coordinates the have rotated in and out of The Americas director for Human Rights Watch, Jose
in recent history. Cholera, health ministry’s efforts to a multinational force in Hai- Miguel Vivanco, called the ruling a step backward for
which arrived in Haiti in Oc- combat the illness, still be- ti since 2004. q the institute, known by its Spanish initials as the INAI.
“With this ruling, the INAI is not only abandoning the
basic principles of openness and transparency it’s sup-
posed to uphold, it’s also giving the Attorney General’s
Office a green light to keep the public in the dark about
very serious human rights abuses,” Vivanco wrote.
The Mexican government has denied extra-judicial kill-
ings in the case, saying federal police responded after
coming under fire.
But the government also initially denied any miscon-
duct in a June 2014 massacre in Mexico State where
the army said 22 alleged gang members were killed in
a shootout that injured one soldier.q
