UNITED NATIONS, June 25 (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on world leaders meeting here Monday to show compassion and frankness in confronting the AIDS epidemic that is killing five million people a year.
"We cannot deal with AIDS by making moral judgements, or refusing to face unpleasant facts, and still less by stigmatising those who are infected and making out that it is all their fault," he said.
Annan was speaking from the podium of the General Assembly at the start of a three-day special session on HIV/AIDS, the first in the 56-year history of the United Nations that has been devoted to a public health issue.
Delegates representing about 180 countries, including two dozen heads of state and government, began by standing for a minute's silence to commemorate the 22 million people who have died of the disease.
One of the first speakers, President Festus Mogae of Botswana -- the country with the highest percentage of infected adults -- appealed to the world community to be "innovative, bold and courageous" in fighting AIDS.
A social revolution was required, he said, "a social vaccine against harmful practices and the violation of human rights."
Annan's impassioned appeal for candour was an indirect rebuke to conservatives who objected to explicit references to homosexuals, sex workers, drug users and prison inmates in the declaration which the session is due to adopt.
"Let is remember that every person who is infected, whatever the reason, is a fellow human being, with human rights and human needs," Annan said.
"Let no-one imagine that we can protect ourselves by building barriers between us and them," he added.
"In the ruthless world of AIDS, there is no us and them."
The president of the Assembly, Harri Holkeri of Finland, said that after the "gruelling experience" of the preparatory conferences, there was still no agreement on the declaration.
"I appeal to delegates to resolve the remaining issues," he said.
Annan began by recalling the stark statistics of the epidemic.
"In the 20 years since the world first heard of AIDS, the epidemic has spread to every corner of the world," he said.
AIDS has killed 22 million people and orphaned 13 million children. The global infection rate is now 15,000 people a day, five million a year, and 36 million are living with the virus.
"Up to now, the world's response has not measured up to the challenge, but this year, we have seen a turning point," Annan said.
There had been a change in attitudes to the epidemic, he said, creating an unprecedented common purpose.
"AIDS can no longer do its deadly work in the dark; the world has started to wake up," he said.
What was needed now was leadership, partnership and solidarity, he added.
He appealed to developing country leaders to increase domestic spending on HIV/AIDS to five times its current level, and to governments and private donors in the developed world to contribute to the global fund he has proposed.
"Our goal is to make the fund operational by the end of this year," he said. So far, the United States has pledged 200 million dollars, France about 128 million, Britain 105 million and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 100 million dollars.
The director of the UN agencies' joint programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Peter Piot, urged delegates to never give up, "to never allow the obstacles along the way to defeat us."
He looked forward to a day when no-one living with the virus was ostracised, when all young people knew how to protect themselves from infection, and when no infant was born with HIV.
This was not an impossible dream, he said. There had been major new pledges of resources, unprecedented political leadership, huge cuts in the price of HIV drugs and new partnerships with the private sector.
"We know what works, we know what to do," Piot said: "We must ensure that no country, no community fails in its response to AIDS because of a lack of financial, technical and human resources."
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