US Blocking International Deal on Fighting AIDS
   By Ewen MacAskill
   The Guardian UK

   Friday 02 June 2006

   Britain distances itself from Bush administration. Negotiators try
to salvage package at UN summit.

   The Bush administration, heavily influence by the Christian right,
is blocking key proposals for a new United Nations package to combat
Aids worldwide over the next five years because of its opposition to
the distribution of condoms and needle exchanges and references to
prostitutes, drug addicts and homosexuals.

   The United States is being supported by many Muslim countries,
including Egypt, and various conservative African and Latin American
nations. "There are a lot of unholy alliances all over the place,"
said a European official attending UN talks in New York last night.

   Fraught negotiations were continuing to try to salvage as much of
the package as possible. More than 140 nations are attending the UN
summit in New York which began on Wednesday. The meeting is intended
to update a 2001 declaration that provided the momentum for a
worldwide campaign against Aids. A new declaration is due to be agreed
today.

   Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, told the summit: "The world
has been unconscionably slow in meeting one of the most vital aspects
of the struggle: measures to fight the spread of Aids among women and
girls. These shortcomings are deadly."

   A report published on Tuesday by the agency UNAIDS says new
figures suggest the infection rate is slowing down globally, but new
infections are continuing to increase in certain regions and
countries.

   The report adds that an estimated 38.6 million people are living
with the Aids virus, HIV; 4.1 million were newly infected last year;
2.8 million died of Aids last year; and treatment with medicines is
available to less than half of those infected withthe virus.

   Of those infected worldwide, almost half - about 17 million - are
women, and three-quarters of those are in Africa.

   The British government, which has sided with Washington so often
over the past decade, is in the progressive bloc at the summit, along
with Canada and other European countries, and is diametrically opposed
to Washington over its approach to Aids.

   Although the US is the world's highest spender in combating the
virus, much of the money goes towards sex abstinence campaigns rather
than the distribution of condoms or needle-exchange programmes.

   Hilary Benn, the international development secretary, who flew to
New York last night and will address the UN general assembly today,
distanced himself from the US approach.

   He said: "We have to take action on the evidence of what works, on
what saves people's lives, and not on ideology. That means making
condoms available and reducing harm to people at risk: injecting
drug-users, sex workers and men having sex with men."

   He said he hoped a declaration would be agreed today. "At the
moment, one could say negotiations are deadlocked," he said. "I am
concerned about that, but I do hope that we'll be able to find a way
forward."

   Sisonke Msimang, a spokeswoman for the Johannesburg-based Open
Society Initiative for South Africa, one of hundreds of civil groups
attending the summit, said: "It is not going forward." She added that
America was among the key antagonists, saying: "America has been clear
that it will oppose global targets. America says any mention of
condoms has to be matched by abstinence and faithfulness."

   The US is also opposed to increased funding targets. UNAIDS wants
spending to be increased from £4.4bn a year on fighting Aids to £12bn
by 2010. But Washington has opposed this, preferring individual
countries to set targets rather than the UN.

   The Washington Post reported yesterday that the US government
feared that if the target was set and there were shortfalls, it would
be blamed.

   The summit overrode the US funding objections yesterday, but
negotiations were continuing last night over who will fund the £12bn
target. The US wants conditions to be attached to funding, but is
being opposed by the Europeans.

   The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which represents
Muslim countries, vehemently opposes references in the declaration to
homosexuals, prostitutes and drug addicts, saying these should not
appear in a public document. The US is supporting the OIC.

   The summit, held to mark the 25th anniversary of the first
documented Aids cases, is supposed to flesh out promises made at the
G8 summit in Gleneagles last year to combat the virus. Diplomats
involved in the negotiations were working late into the night in order
to secure agreement for today's meeting, which is due to be attended
by a number of heads of government and which is due to be opened by
the US first lady, Laura Bush.

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[I saw her speak. Her speech is not even worth toilet paper. I gave
her the finger as she left the podium.]