7 December 2000
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — African leaders Thursday reiterated their commitment to fight HIV/AIDS as they related the experiences of their respective countries to check the spread of the pandemic.
Addressing the last day of the 2nd African Development Forum, which opened Sunday discussing the challenges of HIV/AIDS to the development of the continent, the leaders emphasised the crucial role of national moralisation, involving cross-section of society, with the government spearheading the campaign.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni stated such a campaign required "the largest and loudest alarm possible to the dangers of the syndrome."
OAU secretary-general Salim Ahmed Salim, who chaired the plenary's "Heads of State and Government Forum" at which each leader delivered a statement, stated that the AIDS pandemic had indeed constituted a great leadership challenge as indicated by the theme of the gathering.
Presidents Museveni, Festus Mogae of Botswana, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, vice -president Justin Malewezi of Malawi and Prime Ministers Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, Nyagoum Yamassoum of Chad and Moustapha Niasse of Senegal took turns to express their country's commitment to stop AIDS in its tracks.
Meles stated that there was no reason why Africa could not succeed in what he described as a war for the future of the continent.
"What is required is the active participation of all sectors of our population in all aspects of the fighting against the pandemic," he said.
He stated that there was no substitute for this, because success in the fight against HIV/AIDS was based on effective and sustained "social moralisation."
Museveni, who has been credited as being the first African leader to have taken a bold leadership role against the pandemic, stated that "the best channel for making the warning alarm against the killer disease was political leadership."
He said that by sounding the alarm about AIDS at political gatherings, over radio and television and at community gatherings, Uganda has been able to attain 100 percent awareness against the pandemic.
"We have to admit that AIDS has become an African disease, with 71 percent of the 35 million people infected with the virus world-wide, living in Africa," he said.
Mogae said an appeal must be made to "our partners" in the developed world to convince major pharmaceutical companies to make the cost of anti-AIDS drugs affordable to Africans.
Kagame mentioned the Great Lakes Initiative on AIDS set up in 1999 in which countries in the region were co-operating and co-ordinating efforts.
He stated that the pandemic, which had affected only 2 percent of Rwandans after the 1994 genocide, had increased to 11 percent by 1998.
"We are sensitising a cross-section of our society's leadership in the fight against AIDS," he said.
He added that his government was providing anti-AIDS drugs to the affected at reduced prices.
Malewezi said increased access to anti-AIDS drugs was crucial and should be made the agenda of African leaders, as was made clear by the petition of the youth Wednesday night.
He also said another demand of the Ethiopian youth and youth participants of the ADF had been debt relief.
"We should mount a campaign for debt cancellation, not debt relief," Malewezi stated, pointing out that sub-Saharan African external debt presently stands at 227 billion US dollars.
Yamassoum told the gathering that the number of AIDS patients in his country, which only had two in 1986, had now reached more than 12,000.
He said even this figure was "the tip of the iceberg," as experts estimate the number of AIDS patients in Chad between 40,000 and 50,000.
"We have come to this conference to learn from the experience of others in the fight against the disease," he stated.
Niasse called for "concrete and concerted" action against the pandemic. Social moralisation alone was not enough, implementation and follow up aspects of the campaign against AIDS in African countries should involve all the stakeholders, Niasse observed.
Salim said that it was important that the message of the gathering reach the "African people and our partners involved in this struggle as a matter of urgency."
He urged the participants to focus their attention on the "consensus declaration to be issued by the gathering and leave Addis Ababa with a total commitment to implement it."
Salim said the consensus declaration will be taken to the special OAU summit on AIDS and other related issues to be held in April in Abuja, Nigeria.
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