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26
JUNE 2001
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CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Traditional indigenous attire of a Mayan woman from the Quiche region of Guatemala.
United
Nations, June 26, 2001 (CNS NEWS)
CANADA COMMITS $73 MILLION TO FIGHT
HIV/AIDS
IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
The Government of Canada is
strengthening its response to the global HIV/AIDS
epidemic.
Maria Minna, Canada's Minister for International Cooperation,
has announced that
the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is
committing over $73 million to fight HIV/AIDS in developing
countries.
The
Minister made the announcement while attending the United
Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS.
"Canada is acting to help stop this disease from ravaging
the developing world," Minister Minna said. " We
must increase education and prevention while ensuring that
those who are now living with HIV/AIDS have access to
care."
$44.6 million will be used for initiatives in Africa, $20
million in the Americas, $1.8 million in Asia and $6.7 million
in Central and Eastern Europe.
The programming includes enhanced
support to HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean: - $20 million
for 5 years to the Carribean Epidemiology Centre, CARICOM and
other regional organizations for work in Pan-Caribbean
countries (Commonwealth Caribbean, Haiti, and Dominican
Republic) that will support advocacy, policy development and
legislation, care and support for people living with HIV/AIDS,
the prevention of HIV transmission with a focus on young
people, prevention among especially vulnerable groups, and
prevention of mother to child transmission.
UN
AIDS conference opens
United Nations - The United
Nations today opened a high-level conference to combat AIDS,
the disease killing five million adults a year and creating
a generation of orphans. Declaring AIDS had wiped out a
decade of progress in some areas, U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan called on the world to speak frankly about the
disease that has already killed 22 million people. The
meeting is being attended by presidents, prime ministers,
and health ministers. It runs for three days with a myriad
of side events and 3,000 activists, health experts, business
leaders and AIDS victims descending on New York for the
conference.
Denzil
L. Douglas, the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis,
said it was regrettable that "institutions and private
foundations that pledged to assist the countries in Africa
did not appear to have recognized the seriousness of the
situation in the Caribbean." He pointed out that there
were 360,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the region.
"In the face of this phenomenon, Caribbean countries
have been both steadfast and proactive," he said.
However, like the countries in Africa, Caribbean States had
little access to antiretroviral medicines to fight AIDS. The
disease, he said, "should force us to accept that in
the struggle to preserve the fabric of our humanity, we must
work together to solve this problem."
The Prime Minister of the
Bahamas, Hubert
A. Ingraham, expressed strong support for the
establishment of the Global Fund, while voicing concern that
small developing countries which did not have UN agencies
located in their territories might have trouble accessing
the resources. "I wish also to sound a cautionary note
that we not place all our eggs in one basket," he
added. "While we recognize that the Fund must assist in
drug acquisition, it is critically important that the
urgency of the need for affordable anti-retroviral drugs
required for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, and effective drugs
for TB and malaria, not result in a disproportionate skew of
the assets of the Fund to the supply of drugs."
Grenada
government closes six more offshore banks
St. George's, Grenada - The
Grenada government has revoked the licences of six more
offshore banks operating in the country. A statement in the
weekend Press names the banks as Anglo-American Limited,
Rahab Trust and Management company, Wellington Bank and
Trust, Caribbean Merchant Bank, Crown Meridian Bank and Bern
Savings. The brief statement from Finance Minister Anthony
Boatswain did not give reasons for closing the banks, but
the action is seen as part of a continuing drive by the
government to clean up the sector.
Opposition
surprised over transfer to mental home
Port of Spain, Trinidad - Trinidad
and Tobago's main opposition party says it was surprised by
a decision to move an ex-minister on a murder charge from
his cell at a maximum security prison to a mental
institution. Former government minister Dhanraj Singh, who
is on a murder charge, is expected to be removed from his
cell this week and taken to a mental institution on the
order of National Security Minister Basdeo Panday, who is
also the country's prime minister. "I am very surprised
at that move," said Opposition Leader Patrick Manning.
"It appears to us that (Singh) was in the custody of
the courts. Therefore, those decisions are to be made by the
courts," said Manning, who admitted he was not certain
what the laws state.
Jamaican
police hold suspects in priest's murder
Kingston, Jamaica - Police in
Jamaica are questioning two suspects in connection with last
week's murder of Roman Catholic Priest, Father Martin
Royacres. The Annotto Bay police who are investigating the
killing confirmed yesterday that they had two men in
custody, both residents of the fishing and banana production
town. An investigator said police had not yet charged them
as they were continuing their investigations which could
lead them to someone "higher up."
Trinidad
financial group plans big US investment
Port of Spain, Trinidad - The
Trinidad and Tobago-based CL Financial Group plans to invest
US$2 billion in real estate redevelopment projects in
Florida over the next 10 years spanning hotels, homes and
commercial properties, a report in the Florida Sun-Sentinel
has said. On the intracoastal waterway, it has plans to
develop Palazzo Las Olas, a $75 million Mediterranean-style
residential and retail complex, the paper reported last
week. The privately held company wants to diversify from the
Caribbean and sees opportunities in Broward, an area
Chairman Lawrence Duprey describes as "less crowded
than Miami ... with real estate still at a reasonable
price."
Barbados
bans meat imports from Uruguay
Bridgetown, Barbados - The Barbados
government is no longer issuing import permits for fresh
meat and meat products from Uruguay following an outbreak of
food and mouth disease in that country. "This ban was
put in place immediately upon notification of an outbreak of
foot and mouth disease that occurred in that country within
the past few months," a weekend Government Information
Service (GIS) release said. Senior Veterinary Officer, Dr.
Trevor King said that given the ease with which the disease
is spread, it was necessary to implement a total ban on the
importation of such products.
Fewer
deportees to Jamaica last year
Kingston, Jamaica - Jamaica
received 16.5 per cent fewer deportees from the United
States, Canada and the United Kingdom last year than it did
in 1999, according to the latest Economic and Social Survey
of Jamaica, published by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ).
The publication stated that 1,730 persons were deported here
last year. This was 341 below the number of Jamaicans
deported the previous year. The figure of 2,071 persons
deported here in 1999 was also 4.2 per cent below the 1998
figure of 2,161, the publication noted. Most deportees to
Kingston came from the United States, which was responsible
for 1,274 of the total for 2000.
President
Jagdeo promises better deal for Linden
Georgetown, Guyana - In the
aftermath of clashes between police and civilians, President
Bharrat Jagdeo visited the mining town of Linden on Sunday -
and promised residents a better deal. The visit, during
which Jagdeo met with the towns people, followed a protest
last Thursday by Lindeners against poverty, lack of
employment and other problems in the town, located some 65
miles outside the capital, Georgetown. Riot Police were sent
from Georgetown late Thursday after some protesters
reportedly stoned police and the lawmen responded by firing
teargas.
AFRICAN NEWS
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Quote
"We
shall keep in mind the Akan saying which
I learned in my youth, and which sums up
so well the spirit of democracy as
Africans understand it: Etii baaku enko
edjina! One head alone is not
enough to decide!"
Kofi
Annan, in his address to the Fourth
International Conference of New and
Restored Democracies, Cotonou, Benin, 1
December 2000
World
leaders address UN special session on
AIDS
25 June – As the United Nations
special
session on AIDS got under way in New
York this morning, the General Assembly
- the UN's main legislative and
deliberative body -- heard impassioned
calls for action from heads of State and
Government who addressed the Assembly's
plenary meeting.
In the course of three plenary
meetings running from morning through
late evening, the Assembly was scheduled
to hear over 70 speakers, including
heads of State and government, health
ministers and other high-level
officials.
Omar
Bongo, the President of Gabon, said
drugs to treat AIDS must be made
available to all, and the proposed
Global AIDS and Health Fund must be made
operational as soon as possible.
"Small pox has disappeared, polio
is vanishing; AIDS must also go,"
he said. If all acted in unity to combat
the scourge, he said, "for once in
history the word solidarity will have
taken on its full meaning."
Offering the perspective of one of
the countries most devastated by the
disease, the President of Botswana, Festus
Mogae, stressed that funds were
needed for voluntary counselling and
testing, assistance to AIDS support
groups, scientific research for AIDS
drugs and vaccines, improved access to
drugs, and ensuring "that the fight
against HIV/AIDS does not come at the
cost of sustainable development and
improved living standards for developing
nations." Welcoming the proposed
Fund, the President emphasized that its
resources should be disbursed to
countries worst-hit by the pandemic.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye
Wade said that since the first
appearance of AIDS in Senegal in 1986,
the Government had been making serious
efforts to fight the disease. As a
result, the AIDS prevalence rate was
only 2 per cent. At the same time, he
pointed out that the exhorbitant cost of
medicines to treat AIDS was "simply
immoral and unacceptable." Calling
on the special session to take decisive
action, he said, "The time to act
is now. Tomorrow it will be too
late."
Ghana's President, John
Agyekum Kufour, recalled that
earlier this year at a summit meeting in
Abuja, African governments had pledged
to allocate at least 15 per cent of
their annual budgets to improvements in
the health sector to combat the
pandemic. "Significant as this
initiative is, it must be admitted that
it will be inadequate without sustained
and concerted international assistance
directed at both prevention of the
disease and mitigation of its
impact," he said. Ghana supported
the proposed Global AIDS and Health
Fund, which he said should be
administered by the UN "with all
the urgency and dispatch the crisis
commands."
Pascoal
Manuel Mocumbi, the Prime Minister
of Mozambique, underscored the gender
dimensions of the pandemic. "HIV is
transmitted through the most intimate
and private human relationships, through
sexual violence and commercial sex; it
proliferates mostly because of women's
poverty and inequality," he said,
calling for special efforts to help
those most vulnerable to the disease. On
the proposed Global Fund, he emphasized
that "no commitment we declare
today will achieve the desired results
if adequate resources are not provided
consistently and sustained over
time."
Nigerian President Olusegun
Obasanjo called attention to the
devastating impact of AIDS in Africa.
"The future of our continent is
bleak, to say the least, and the
prospect of extinction of the entire
population of a continent looms larger
and larger," he said. Africans were
looking to the special session with
hope, he added, urging participants to
help people living with AIDS "to
overcome the stigma of society, [so]
they can join the crusade against
further spread of the killer
disease."
Daniel
T. arap Moi, President of Kenya,
underscored the devastation wrought by
AIDS on Africa. "This is a time
when the production of coffins is a
growing industry because of this
dreadful pestilence," he said. On
the issue of patent protection for new
anti-AIDS medicines, he said it would
pose a choice between the human lives
and the right of commercial interest.
"Human life must surely come before
anything else," he said."
There will be no question of
corporations or individuals making
handsome profits at the expense of my
people, the people of Africa or at the
expense of the sick."
Rwandan President Paul
Kagame, said his country was among
the worst-hit by HIV/AIDS, with some
400,000 people - out of a total
population of 8 million - estimated to
be infected. The 1994 genocide, in which
untold numbers of women and young girls
were systematically raped, was partly to
blame for the high prevalence rate.
Despite its problems, Rwanda was working
to respond to the epidemic, including by
purchasing anti-retroviral drugs, and
providing them to the public at
subsidized rates. He said international
efforts should focus on adopting a
global strategy that is realistic,
practical and effective, particularly in
regard to resource mobilization.
Lesotho's Prime Minister, Pakalitha
B. Mosisili, said HIV/AIDS had been
declared a national disaster in his
country. He described the Government's
efforts to fight back, which included
providing drugs for the treatment of
opportunistic infections, adding that
Lesotho would "soon reach a
decision on the availability and
accessibility of anti-retroviral
therapy." At the same time, he
stressed the country's need for support
to strengthen its infrastructure and
increase access to drugs.
Alpha
Oumar Konare, the President of Mali,
said together, AIDS, malaria and
tuberculosis were having a devastating
impact on Africa. The continent's
leaders had confirmed their commitment
to combat the scourge. For its part,
Mali had launched a broad campaign to
fight the disease. Both the Government
and civil society were working together
to address the problem at the local
level. Stressing that no State must be
left alone to confront the disease, he
called for an international coalition
against it.
Also today, the Assembly took a
series of procedural votes before
adopting, by 62 in favour to none
against with 30 abstentions, an
amendment adding the name of Karyn
Kaplan of the International Gay and
Lesbian Human Rights Commission to the
list of civil society actors who will
participate in tomorrow's roundtable on
"HIV/AIDS and human rights."
The other three roundtables scheduled
for the current session will focus on
"HIV/AIDS prevention and
care," "Socio-economic impact
of HIV/AIDS" and
"International funding and
cooperation."
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