AEGiS-Bangkok Post: Editorial: Aids demands setting aside the differences

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Editorial: Aids demands setting aside the differences

Bangkok Post - July 13, 2004

The first two days of the International Aids Conference in Bangkok make it difficult to be hopeful about the chances of defeating the threatening pandemic. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan challenged world leaders to step up policies to deal with Aids, but they were not present to hear him. A summit of world leaders and Aids victims was abruptly cancelled because even the nine specially invited leaders failed to show. Activists attempted to shout down Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, even calling him a liar. The 20,000 delegates, from national leaders to health workers, must do better because they are losing the fight. Without international cooperation, the disease will advance.

It is important to allow all contributions to the 15th annual conference, particularly in light of its official theme calling for "access for all". There must be a full hearing, and debate if necessary, from all participants. There are unacceptable plans by some activist groups to try to stop certain speeches. Plans to halt a presentation by the representative of the United States, on the grounds that the US provides the most funds to fight Aids but should provide more, are counter-productive. The shouts of "Thaksin is a liar" and the banners at the opening sessions on Sunday were not merely impolite but shameful acts during a speech that deserved notice.

Of course, criticism of the US position is welcome and should be encouraged. Ousting demonstrators is not a political amnesty for Mr Thaksin against charges that he has worsened some aspects of the fight against Aids. According to the Public Health Ministry, nearly 47% of HIV/Aids victims in Thailand are infected by needles shared with fellow drug addicts. In his speech after the rude and unhelpful protesters were ushered out on Sunday afternoon, Mr Thaksin called for treatment for, instead of the incarceration of, drug addicts. Those were welcome words, and overdue. His six-month war on drugs last year not only left more than 2,000 dead but terrified many addicts into going further underground. In any case, treatment is generally unavailable and the government does not even support needle-exchange or methadone programmes, let alone fund them.

The United States is under fire for backing programmes of sexual abstinence and loving, faithful marriages over projects to distribute condoms. By coincidence, one of the few foreign leaders to come to Bangkok, President Yoweri Musaveni of Uganda, said the same thing. There seems plenty of room for both programmes. The "either-or" choice that some activists offer is unhelpful to the single cause that should be shared by all 20,000 people who have come together in Bangkok for the conference sponsored jointly by the International Aids Society and Thailand.

That goal is to beat back and eventually to conquer the single greatest threat to world health. A large number of measures will have to educate, motivate and maintain or heal world citizens facing HIV infection and Aids illness. There is plenty of blame to go around for the fact that the number of infections continues to grow despite promises - sometimes empty - by world leaders to help.

Attempts to shout down Mr Thaksin and other speakers at the HIV/Aids conference will not prevent a new infection of a housewife, educate an uninformed young person, maintain an HIV victim on life-saving drugs or provide tolerance for the children of Aids-infected parents. Mr Annan has issued a challenge to act against Aids, a problem that ranks with terrorism as a great threat to the security, the economy and the very survival of society. The conference participants have the responsibility to face that challenge seriously.

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