UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon decided Friday to establish an international panel to investigate the origin of the cholera epidemic in Haiti. Ban said the panel will be totally independent and will have access to the UN peacekeeping mission and personnel in Haiti as part of its investigation, dpa reported. Haitians last month held violent protests against UN personnel, claiming that they may be responsible for the outbreak by carrying the disease from their home countries. But tests conducted by epidemiologists and microbiologists in response to the riots failed to back up the accusation against the UN. Ban said, however, that the concern that cholera was imported was legitimate and decided to form the panel. He gave no details about the work schedule of the panel or its members. "The best answer can be provided only by science," Ban said. The cholera epidemic has killed more than 2,000 Haitians and infected thousands of others across the beleaguered country, struck in January by a devastating earthquake and currently by the spreading and deadly disease. The UN peacekeeping department at UN headquarters said this week that it has been discussing the investigation with the World Health Organization in Geneva, which has the personnel and means to make the scientific determination about cholera in Haiti.
