FOR decades, Haiti was plagued by human-made and natural disasters. But for more than a century it had no cholera, which thrives where sanitation infrastructure is negligible and personal hygiene is poor.

The United Nations secretary-general plans to call for an independent commission to study whether UN peacekeepers caused a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 2,400 people in Haiti, an official said today.

United Nations investigators took samples of foul-smelling waste trickling behind a Nepalese peacekeeping base in Haiti amid claims that sewage from the newly arrived unit caused the cholera epidemic that has made more than 4,000 people ill.