June 25, 2001
Over two thousand campaigners swarmed up sixth avenue in Manhattan despite torrential rain on Saturday, calling on members of the United Nations to agree a bold and comprehensive response to the HIV crisis in the developing world at their meeting this week.
Behind the New York Public Library, the procession culminated in a rally labeled "Dollars, Debt, and Drugs" at which a number of speakers demonstrated their frustration with what they deemed to be an inadequate effort on the part of the world's richest nations to help those poor countries hardest hit by AIDS.
Organised by the Global AIDS Alliance, the march was attended by activists from groups working on AIDS, health, debt, Africa and overseas development. The specific demands were for increased contributions to the Global Health Fund proposed by Kofi Annan; debt cancellation to allow countries to use resources for fighting the AIDS pandemic; and affordable drugs for people living with AIDS. Activists said Sub-Saharan Africa pays about $13 billion a year to service their debts, money that could be used to build up health and education infrastructure and buy medicines if wealthier nations would forgive the loans. ``We in Africa cannot service our debt when our people are dead and they are dying and they are sick,'' said Sheila Kibuka, executive director of the Kenya-based activist group Hope Africa. Kibuka said she has lost three family members to AIDS in the past three years, adding: ``I am losing people in my community every day.'' The link between debt and AIDS was echoed in speeches by African Heads of State in the opening session of the UN summit on Monday. "The circumstance and the situation of HIV/AIDS underscore our call for total cancellation of Africa's debts in favour of investment in the social sector" said Nigerian President Olesugun Obasanjo. "President, if we are to be true partners in development, the debt issue must be addressed in a comprehensive manner that frees our resources to enable us fight the scourge of HIV/AIDS, as well as meet our other social obligations to our people."
The deputy Prime Minister of Uganda drew attention to the huge financing gap facing African countries, and called for total debt cancellation for poor and highly-indebted countries. "We, the leaders gathered here, have the means and ways to deliver a bright and safe future for our children" said Dr. Pascoal Manuel Mocumbi, Prime Minister of Mozambique. "We must not leave for tomorrow, the current unsustainable global patterns of poverty, debt, shameful and the immoral prices demanded for drugs and medicines to treat HIV/AIDS."
The UN special session has been convened in recognition of the emergency presented by AIDS globally. More than 36 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS. Last year alone, more than five million people were infected. Every day, another 15,000 people acquire the virus. Seventy per cent of people with HIV live in Africa, and in some countries on the continent, it has set back development by a decade or more.
Kofi Annan has called for $7 - 10 billion annually to fund the global fight against disease, for both prevention and treatment. So far, less than half a billion dollars have been pledged, although further contributions are expected in the coming months. The US has pledged an initial $200 million, which is equivalent to what Africa repays in debt service in just one week.
The draft declaration, agreed in principle by all UN member states, includes language on debt cancellation but does not address the issue of multilateral debt - debt owed to international insitutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
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