6 December 2000
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — Former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda Wednesday reminded African leaders of their onerous to fight to contain the spread of HIV/AIDS.
In an addressing at the second African Development Forum in Addis Ababa, Kaunda told some 1,500 participants of the gathering from 44 African countries, that it was indisputable though, that "our national and political leaders" in the AIDS stricken countries have done as much as they could.
Kaunda praised the efforts of cultural and religious leaders, whom he said, have done so much in the struggle against the AIDS pandemic.
He, however, challenged them to do more by speaking "more openly, ceaselessly and fearlessly" to their people about the disease.
By so doing, he said, they would reduce the stigma associated with infected persons and at the same time help prevent its transmission.
The ageing statesman said this openness over HIV/AIDS would also help people to demonstrate love and care for orphans and for people living with the disease.
More importantly, he said, it would help to mobilise parents of those infected by AIDS to take action in all areas related to its spread.
Speaking on the topic, "Towards a more effective leadership response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic," Kaunda suggested that leadership was needed for "energising, visiting, committing resources, comforting and expressing a nation's total commitment to controlling this dreaded disease."
He predicated that Africa would experience more human devastation in the first decade of the new millennium than the entire world experienced in global warfare in the last century.
"This horrendous, frightening figure sums it all up for me...what Africa is faced up with in the first decade of this century," he said.
"We cannot allow Mother Africa to be raped in this way by HIV/AIDS. We must take action to prevent these deaths," he emphasised.
To do so, he said, required empowering women economically, socially and sexually so that they cease to be vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infection.
By doing that, "We can successfully eradicate the all-embracing poverty, which feeds on AIDS and is fed by AIDS," Kaunda said.
He then called on the participants to ceaselessly wage an all out war on AIDS in Africa, "involving every nation, every community, family and every individual."
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