Haitians protest for UN cholera compensation

Prior to 2010, Haiti had been free from cholera for nearly half a century

Several thousand people have taken part in a protest in Haiti, demanding that the United Nations pays compensation to people with cholera.

The protesters say UN peacekeepers inadvertently carried the disease into Haiti, causing an epidemic which has killed almost 7,000 people.

Several studies have found that cholera was probably brought to Haiti by UN troops from Nepal.

A US-based rights group has filed for pay-outs for thousands of the victims.

The Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) says it is prepared to go to court in Haiti or the US if the UN does not respond to the claims, which amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

It says the UN mission in Haiti failed to screen peacekeepers for cholera and allowed untreated waste from a UN base to be dumped into the main river.

The UN has accepted the possibility peacekeepers from Nepal may have brought cholera in, but say this has yet to be proven scientifically.

It says it is continuing to do everything it can to bring the spread of the disease under control in the poverty-stricken nation.

Almost 500,000 people - some 5% of the population - have been infected by cholera since the outbreak began in October 2010, according to the Haitian Ministry of Health.