- Dr.
Beat Richner, Kantha Bopha Children`s
Hospitals
-
- Phnom
Penh / Siemreap Angkor
- The
Human Rights Day,10.12.99
-
-
- To
The President
- of
the International Court of Justice
- and
Human Rights.
- Peace
Palace
- 2517
KJ The Hague
- The
Netherlands
-
-
-
- President,
- Your
Honour,
-
- Out
of the experiences as founder and director of three
Children's Hospitals in the Kingdom of Cambodia, which
are treating 30 000 hospitalised children and 400 000
outpatients per year (all free of charge), let me file
the following suit against the UN`s Organisations WHO
and Unicef and other Organisations which follow the
UN`s policy for Health care in poor countries for poor
people sue crimes against Humanity and sue the
violation of the convention on the Right of the Child
(Article 24).
-
- On
September 25th 1998 an appeal was launched with the
WHO in Geneva. This appeal
- „
The passive genocide of Cambodia `s children" was
asking for change in the WHO`s and other
organisation`s policy and strategy poor medicine for
poor people in poor countries.
-
- Up
to now nothing has changed.
-
- Even
worse : Representatives of UN Organisations and other
Organisations try to undermine activities which show
the truth of the actual horrible Health situation in
Cambodia. They try to undermine activities of doing
correct diagnosis and correct treatment of suffering
children . WHO told the public in medias (Dr.Julian
Lob-Levit, Health planning and management, Ministry of
Health Phnom Penh) in May 1997: Kantha Bopha is wrong.
Its conception is wrong , too expensiv related to the
Budget of Health of Cambodia.
- Kantha
Bopha I and II have hospitalised 1998 28 000 very sick
children. 1998 there was an Epidemia of Dengue Fever.
In Cambodia 12 400 cases were registrated. Among these
12 400 children 10 000 cases (the Diagnosis confirmed
) were hospitalised in Kantha Bopha. 60 % arrived in
shock. So 60 % would have died without Kantha Bopha.
Only 1,5% have died. But WHO`s representative
Dr.Julian Lob-Levit endangered the existence of Kantha
Bopha , he endangered the private and spontanous funds
by spreading out the WHO`s desastres comment and
condemnation.What would happen without the facilities
of the Kantha Bopha Hospitals?
- You
can not manage it in a cheaper way…a haemorrhagic
shock has to be treated by blood transfusion. If you
do not expend money for the tests (500 000 USD per
year, 50 USD per blood bottle: these are additional
costs for the three Kantha Bopha's bloodbanks) you
contaminate the children by HIV and Hepatitis as it is
done in the bloodbanks over all Cambodia`s
dispenseries, installed , sponsored and praised by the
International Organisations. You get to be criminal.
And we see children contaminated by these centers and
passing away.
-
- 50
% of Kantha Bopha`s operating costs budget (9 Million
USD) is used for efficient medicines and efficient
drugs. All this money is going back to the rich
countries, where these drugs are produced. The
representatives of WHO and Unicef sent by these rich
countries, how do they want to treat all these 28 000
hospitalised children and all the
- 400
000 outpatients in the Kantha Bopha
Hospitals?
-
-
- On
March 31st 1999 we opened a third Children`s Hospital
in Siem Reap. Representatives of the Unicef ( Dr.Rob
Overtoom ) and a representative of the Swiss Red Cross
(Dr.T.Achard) told the public several times in medias
not to build this Hospital.There is no need, they told
the media. So they endangered the private funds needed
for building and running this Hospital.
Representatives of the DEZA (Direktion fuer
Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit, a section of the Swiss
Foreign Ministry) was opposed in public to this
Hospital .They call it subversion of the actual Health
System (which is created and managed by
WHO).
-
- Since
March 31st 1999 we have there hospitalised 3800 very
sick children. 80% would have died without the
facilities of this Hospital. 80% would have died if
the policy and the statements in public by these
representatives and responsibles were
followed.
- What
we actually see in Siem Reap is horrible: Children
thin like children being seen in concentration camps.
Malnourished not because of lack of food but because
of chronical Tuberculosis, some suffering from the
severest forms of Tuberculosis: Meningitis, Pott,
Miliaris,etc. Medical Illtreatment, Maltreatment and
Notreatment of children by a Health system created and
sustained by WHO. These 10 Health centers and
dispensaries around Siem Reap managed by Unicef since
years (Dr.Rob Overtoom) have no efficiency. Neither
diagnosis are done nor correct and efficient medicine
and drugs are applicated. Vaccinations are not done in
a efficient and significant way: we see hundreds of
Measles, a lot of cases of Tetanus. But the
representatives of these Organisations are thinking
their system with Health centers and dispensaries,
which actually does not work , is enough for poor
people in poor countries. Sustaining the poverty,
sustaining the suffering, sustaining their positions
as Lords of poverty.
-
-
-
- At
times the representatives of WHO and Unicef defend
themselves by denying their own responsibilty: "The
responsabilty lies in the hand of the Ministry of
Health.We are consultant." But by these public
statements mentioned above , by running such centers ,
it gets to be obvious: they are culprits.
- It
is a crime to continue this system. A crime against
humanity.
-
- President,
Your Honour,
- according
to Article 34, paragraph 1, of the Statute of the
Court of Justice and Human Rights only States may be
parties in cases before the Court.
-
- In
a letter by the Ministry of Health (April 1995)
adressed to Cambodia's two Prime Ministers, the
Ministers of Intern and Foreign Affairs, in a letter
enginiered by WHO , Kantha Bopha was declared as State
in the State not following the protocols. (That is one
factor explaining the medical success and the vital
importance of Kantha Bopha for Camboidia's children).
So the UN's Organisation of Health considers Kantha
Bopha as State.
- On
the other hand: where you can find Justice in cases of
crimes against humanity committed by UN? So please
accept the following Statement of claim.
-
- President
, Your Honour,
- I
thank you for your help in the name of the human
rights of the poorest children in one of the poorest
country of the world.
-
- Sincerely
Yours Dr. Beat Richner
-
- Enclosed:
Statement of claim
- Booklet:
The passive Genocide of Cambodia's
Children
- Texte
de Norodom Sihanouk,Roi du Cambodge pour
- le
Dr.Beat Richner
-
|
- Statement
of claim
- against
the UN`s Organisations WHO and Unicef and other
organisations following and executing the UN´s
Health Policy for poor people in poor countries sue
crimes against humanity and sue the violation of the
convention on the Rights of the Child (Article
24).
-
- Crimes
against Humanitiy
- Organised
and programmed deprivation of access to
medicine.
- In
addition this must be seen as act of discrimination:
the representatives of the acting UN's Organisations
are asking for other standards concerning their own
health and the health of their own children. And they
get it: Evacuations, correct treatment, correct
vaccinations ,etc. These all are measures outside the
Healthsystem they created and are sustaining for poor
people in poor countries. So it is a crime of
apartheid too.
-
- Violation
of the convention on the Rights of the Child.(Article
24)
- Systematical
Illtreatment ,Maltreatment and Notreatment destroying
thousands of Children`s lives.
-
- By
the policy of WHO recommending ineffective and killing
medicine and drugs.
-
- By
the policy of UNTAC and WHO having created the worst
AIDS Epidemy ever seen which could be
prevented.
-
- By
the Policy of WHO and Unicef recommending not to do
the JEV (Japanese Encephalitis Virus)
vaccination.
-
- By
the Policy of WHO and Unicef hindering from doing
correct Diagnosis and treatment of Tuberculosis of
Children.
-
-
- By the
policy of WHO recommending ineffective and killing
medicine and drugs.
-
- Most
organisations still use in case of grave and milder
infections the cheap antibiotic chloramphenicol. This
drug is still on the essential-drug list of WHO. In
Cambodia the germs, which cause purulent meningitis
(Haemophilus, Meningococcs) are up to 75% resistant to
chloramphenicol. The bacteria causing typhoid fever up
to 96%. This cheap medication not only is not
efficient, but it kills. Since 1970 it is no more used
for children in the rich world. The chances for a
child suffering from leukaemia rises 13 times after
the treatment with chloramphenicol. In addition, there
are isolated anemia and bone marrow aplasia deadly
side effects. Using this medication is much more
dangerous in Cambodia than in Europe: the liver of
children whose liver functions usualy have been
affected by diseases &endash; dengue fever, malaria,
hepatitis, tuberculosis etc.- would not be able to
metabolize the medication properly.
- In
Kantha Bopha we have seen hundreds of children
bleeding and passing away by the application of
Chloramphenicol by Organisations, dispenseries or
others, beeing legalised and recommended by
WHO.
-
- Since
the opening of Kantha Bopha in November 1992, we have
been using the expensive medicine Rocephine instead of
chloramphenicol. WHO dismisses it as luxuary. But
Rocephine is still the only efficient ans correct
alternative for children.
-
-
- By the
Policy of UNTAC and WHO having created the worst AIDS
Epidemy ever seen which could be
prevented.
-
- Until
1991, Cambodia was more or less a closed society. It
had always been the custom for a young man to have his
first sexual experience in a brothel. It was
considered good form. AIDS was not known. In 1992 14
000 UN troops and a UN administrative personnel of 8
00 arrived in the country to run the elections
(UNTAC).
- Up
to 5 percent of the troops was infected with HIV
before arriving. Intervention programs and measures,
including those of the commander of the UN medical
corps, were rejected by the leadership of the UN
(UNTAC under Mr.Akashi) and the WHO. People should not
be discriminated against, said their representatives.
Everyone should enjoy the girls, Mr.Akashi said. The
WHO did nothing. AIDS spread like
wildfire.
- In
1992, when Children`s Hospital Kantha Bopha was
opened, there was no AIDS. In 1996, there was already
242 cases; in 1997 429 , in 1998, 582 cases. And this
year there is a dramatic increase: in the last three
months there have been three new cases every day. This
terrific catastrophe of AIDS is evident in the blood
banks of Kantha Bopha I, Kantha Bopha II and
Jayavarman VII in Siem Reap- 7 percent of the donors
are HIV positive.
- The
children are infected by their mothers. Now more than
5 percent of hospitalised children under age 5 are HIV
positive, which makes Kantha Bopha the children`s
hospital with the highest HIV infection rate in the
world.
-
-
- WHO
is telling the medias Kantha Bopha is wrong ,it is too
expensiv. It is the only place where the blood
transfusions are controlled in a correct but an
expensive manner. It is the AIDS Epidemia produced and
accelerated by the UN which causes a lot of costs to
Kantha Bopha.
- On
the provincial and district level there is no
control.
- In
Kantha Bopha Hospital we have seen children passing
away infected by blood transfusion applicated in the
provinces.
-
-
-
- By the
policy of WHO recommending not to do the JEV
vaccination
-
- We
first serologically established the endemic and at
times epidemic incidence of Japanese encephalitis in
Cambodia five years ago. For the last three years the
definite proof from CT (installed in Kantha Bopha II)
has been available: cerebral infarctions &endash;
terrible, irreversible destruction of children`s
brains. Even if the patients survive, normal life with
normal intelligence is in most cases over. In 1997
alone , 700 children in Kantha Bopha died of this
disease. The fataly rate is given 34%. We have found a
fatality rate of 20% here. Sadly, many of the
surviving children suffer from light to severe
neurological, motor, and intellectuel deficits for the
rest of their lives.
- There
is an efficient vaccine available. The WHO turned out
a deaf ear to our repeted four and three years ago for
a mass vaccination program: it was unnecessary and too
expensive for such a poor country.
- In
Kantha Bopha we started the vaccinations three years
ago. It is expensive.
- But
among these thousands of vaccinated children there is
no case of JEVdisease.
-
-
- By the
policy of WHO and UNICEF preventing from doing correct
diagnosis and treatment of the Children`s
Tuberculosis.
-
- Kantha
Bopha Children`s Hospitals are still the only places
in Cambodia where Tuberculosis can be diagnosed an
treated in a correct and controlled manner (during 6
up to 9 months time). At times more than 5000 children
are treated in the Kantha Bopha Hospitals.The
Diagnosis and the correct treatment is
expensiv.
-
- But
if Tuberculosis is not treated sooner or later the
child will pass away .
-
- The
sick child will contaminate others .
-
- Suffering
by chronical Tuberculosis superinfectious diseases as
dengue fever, malaria, thyphus are much more
aggressive because the child is weakend by
Tuberculosis.
-
- As
we started the third Hospital in Siem Reap on March
31st the evidence was terrible: There are children
being thin like children in concentration camps
suffering by evident Tuberculosis. They are suffering
since two or three years (Fistulisations, Pott since
two, three years, longtime destroyed lungs..).They are
chronically malnourished not by lack of food but by
longtime suffering from chronical
Tuberculosis.
- 75%
of all hospitalised children in Siem Reap are
suffering from Tuberculosis.
- By
the province Siem Reap's official statistic 20 case
were registrated last year.But the first month only
the Hospital was opened there were 240 evident
cases….
-
- The
Health system installed since years by WHO, Unicef and
World Bank around Siem Reap does ignore the most
important disease. There are no facilities for the
diagnosis of Tuberculosis. Up to now all these
children were suffering whole their life until they
were passing away noticed by no statistic. A system
created by the International Organisations hiding the
Problem Number One. Hiding the truth. Sustaining
suffering and passing away. And the representatives
who are responsible on this system told the public not
to build the Hospital Jayavarman VII, Annexe of Kantha
Bopha in Siem Reap.
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-
-
- Dr.
Beat Richner, 10.12.99
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