ZANZIBAR, Tanzania, Oct 20, 2006 (AFP) - Zanzibar's parliament Friday passed the islands' first-ever anti-HIV/AIDS policy but rejected conservative Muslim demands to shut all bars and ban skimpy clothing as part of the strategy.
Lawmakers on the semi-autonomous Tanzanian archipelago also refused to endorse Muslim calls to screen all visitors for the virus that causes AIDS and segregate HIV-positive Zanzibaris from the non-infected population.
By a vote of 40 to zero, with 20 opposition MPs who supported the bill abstaining for political reasons, the legislature adopted the "Zanzibar National HIV/AIDS Policy."
The plan calls for a house-to-house anti-HIV/AIDS educational campaign, including instruction on how to prevent the disease in school curriculum and encouraging the use of condoms, Zanzibari officials said.
"The immediate and best solution is to join hands and increase HIV/AIDS education to all areas," said Chief Minister Shamsi Vuai Nahodha, adding that the government could not support suggestions that might violate human rights.
As such and keeping in mind the islands' dependence on tourism, he urged the rejection of calls from some conservative Muslim lawmakers to outlaw bars and pubs, ban "inappropriate clothing" and introduce mandatory screening.
"Introducing laws to force people to have their blood screened for HIV/AIDS, to control people with HIV/AIDS, to ban all bars on the islands, to have all patients in hospitals and visitors, including tourists, checked, can be a big problem," Nahodha said.
"I do not believe they can be the solution to combatting HIV/AIDS," he said.
About 0.6 percent of Zanzibar's overwhelmingly Muslim population of some one million are HIV positive, according to the health ministry.
But there are fears the disease will spread and some conservative Muslim clerics say moral decay, which they blame on the influx of foreign tourists, alcohol and drug consumption, has put Zanzibaris at greater risk.
"The government must be serious in the fight against HIV," said conservative Muslim lawmaker Abdullah Juma. "Those women who move half-naked and the issuing of licenses for bars in Zanzibar should be stopped.
"All bars in Zanzibar must be closed down," he said. "Only this will show that the government is committed to fighting HIV."
Another, Ali Mohamed, said the government had a duty to segregate people who are HIV-positive to protect those not infected.
"HIV/AIDS is not a disease but a curse from God for increasing sins," he said.
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