UN and the Cholera epidemic in Haiti

A group of friends (very angry) texted this picture to me as proof that UN soldiers are responsible for the  Cholera outbreak in Haiti.  Once they determined that it was an epidemic of Cholera that was killing people in the northern part of Haiti, people took the streets, protesting, asking for the UN troops to leave.  I was against this idea for a couple of reasons.  Number one was for the fact that at that time there was no study or any sort of proof to connect the epidemic with the UN troops; number two was for the fact that the UN mission was like the de facto government in Haiti immediately after the earthquake, when top Haitian leaders have abandoned the people, without the UN troops presence I think 300,000 lives lost could  have been more than a half million.  More than the report sponsored by the French government that concluded the Cholera has been brought to Haiti by the UN troops, this picture makes it completely impossible for me to continue defending the UN mission.  How could troops of the  United Nations choose to dump human waste into a river?  Don't they know that the majority of the people in rural Haiti drink from the rivers?  Don't they know that they should not pollute the environment?  How could UN troops make such a boneheaded decision, costing more that 2100 people their lives and infected thousands?  It is very sad that after pictures like this one surfaced that the UN does not apologize to the Haitian people and works more diligently to control the spread of the epidemic.  This shows that UN mission does not really care about the people they are paid to help.  When picture like this shows how the troops have been reckless with people's lives and in spite of this, the mission does not take the necessary actions to even provide Oral Rehydration Salt to those who need it, how can I defend the mission?


 UN troops, I am not going to take the streets to protest and ask that you leave Haiti, because I am grateful that you were there with us in the aftermath of the earthquake when the whereabouts of some of our leaders were unknown.  When some leaders were on CNN doing interviews, while no one thinks about declaring state of emergency, you were there in these dark hours and for that I am not taking the streets. However, if the majority of the people that you have shown no regard for asks you to leave, I think you have to leave.  You have not shown that you have too much respect for the dignity of the Haitian people, by thinking that your waste belongs into the water the people drink.