Haiti cholera victims threaten UN 海地霍乱受害... ...

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Haiti cholera victims threaten UN
海地霍乱受害者威胁联合国

                                                                                                                
                           
                                                      
People in Haiti wait outside a hospital treating people for cholera.
Audio Report：http://club.topsage.com/thread-3271224-1-1.html
Summary
10 May 2013
Victims of the cholera epidemic in Haiti have given the United Nations a 60 day deadline to start talks about compensation or face legal action. The victims, including the families of 8,000 dead and hundreds of thousands of people who have fallen sick, accuse the UN of allowing soldiers to pollute Haiti's water supply with cholera.
海地霍乱灾民向联合国发出最后通牒，称联合国若不能在60天内展开赔款谈判，他们就将采取法律行动。8000多名死者的家属和数万计患者指责联合国纵容维和士兵污染海地水源致使其滋生霍乱。

Reporter: Mark Doyle

Report

The cholera epidemic began in Haiti near a camp for UN soldiers where there were leaking sewage pipes. Some human waste was also dumped outside the camp near a river. One of the UN's own experts on cholera, Danielle Lantagne, told the BBC it was "most likely" the disease originated in the UN camp. It housed UN soldiers from Nepal, where cholera is endemic.  

The UN rejected an earlier call for compensation in this unprecedented case against the world body, saying it was immune from such claims. But the victims' lawyers say the UN is breaking international law. If mediation talks don't begin within 60 days, the lawyers say, they'll open legal proceedings in New York with claims totalling many billions of dollars.  

The lawyers say they'll file claims for $100,000 for the families of those who have lost a loved one and $50,000 for every one of the hundreds of thousands of people who have fallen sick. The UN has said very little on the matter, apart from to insist it is immune from legal proceedings. At the same time, it may also be true that the United Nations simply doesn't know what to do in the face of what could have been a series of catastrophic and deadly errors. In private, UN officials say they're facing a moral crisis. Now they may be about to confront a very public legal battle as well.

Vocabulary

cholera：a serious disease, caused by drinking infected water
epidemic：when a disease spreads without control
sewage：human waste
originated：started
endemic：present in a particular area
unprecedented：something which has never happened before
immune：not able to be affected by something bad; protected
mediation talks：conversations to help reach an agreement
to insist：to say something with force
catastrophic：extremely harmful

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