Associated Press - March 28, 2005

Ugandan officials and church leaders said the report was seriously flawed and lacked any factual basis.

Human Rights Watch accused President Yoweri Museveni and his wife, Janet Museveni, of falling under the influence of U.S. Christian conservatives and placing millions of young Ugandans at risk of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Museveni and the Ugandan government have been widely praised for making Uganda one of the few countries to lower its HIV infection rate, from 15% in 1992 to 6% in 2002. More than one million Ugandans are infected with HIV and a million more have died since 1982.

That success is at risk because Uganda is adopting an abstinence-until-marriage program first created in the U.S., Human Rights Watch said in an 81-page report released Monday.

"The effect of Uganda's new direction in HIV prevention is thus to replace existing, sound public health strategies with unproven and potentially life-threatening messages, impeding the realization of the human right to information, to the highest attainable standard of health, and to life," the report said. "The policy in fact undermines condoms as an HIV prevention measure."

Museveni's spokesman told The Associated Press that although abstinence is an African as well as Christian tradition, the president was committed to existing methods of controlling AIDS using different approaches.

"The president and the first lady are being misunderstood. They have been consistent in advocating for a multi-pronged approach," Onapito Ekomoloit said. "He says that those who are sexually active should be faithful to their partners. That others should abstain and those who cannot abstain should use condoms."

Dr. Alex Opio, the assistant commissioner for National Diseases Control, also insisted there was no change in the government's approach.

"The government policy is A for abstinence, B for be faithful and C for condoms for those who are high risk," he told The Associated Press. "There has been no change. Human Rights Watch may be depending on hearsay."

Uganda imports an average of 80 million condoms a year, said Vasta Kibirige, the head of condom monitoring in the ministry of health. Uganda has a population of 26.8 million.

She said some condoms shipped to Uganda were found to be defective or past their expiration dates, forcing her department to begin inspecting all condom shipments, but she said the imports were only expected to grow.

Human Rights Watch and some local AIDS activists, though, accuse Museveni and his wife of discouraging condom use by publicly doubting their effectiveness.

"The president has been clearly promoting abstinence against condoms, but there is no tangible index to show that abstinence has changed HIV/AIDS prevalence," activist Rubaramira Ruranga said. "We are promoting abstinence in order to please the U.S. so that we get more funds."

However, the head of the AIDS control project in the Ugandan Anglican church, the Rev. Sam Rutaikara, said that he has seen some success with the abstinence message among young people.

"Abstinence has pushed the age of the first sexual contact to 17.5 years for boys and 16.5 for girls from an average of 13," he said.

Human Rights Watch, however, insisted the balance was too tilted toward abstinence and that young people weren't getting all of the available information.

"The political climate favoring abstinence-only approaches in Uganda, including numerous anti-condom statements by President Yoweri Museveni in 2004, also influenced school teachers to teach abstinence as an exclusive method of HIV prevention," the report said.

"Mrs. Museveni has described abstinence-only approaches as a blend of African and Christian values and has used her position of influence to intimidate organizations that promote condoms to young people," the report added.

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