Lusaka — The full backing of the Christian church, have succeeded in blocking the airing of explicit condom use adverts on the national television, much to the chagrin of health minister Enock Kavindele.

The storm began brewing in December when as part of the world-wide commemoration of the World AIDS Day the TV went out of its way to publicise the scourge.

But the manner in which the adverts were formulated, elicited immediate condemnation from the church and concerned parents who saw the ploy as nothing but a marketing gimmick conjured up by condom purveyors.

In one of the adverts, two young men repairing a broken down car are heard discussing the merits and demerits of having sex without a condom.

Eventually one advises the other to use a condom "Every time you have sex...' 'Every time, humhu?'

In the other advert, a female teenager is dropped by a boy-friend, driving a car, at a friend's house where her two friends are plaiting their hair under a tree.

The three girls start discussing the boyfriend who has just left and one is heard advising friends that without a condom she will not allow her own boyfriend to have penetration sex with her.

In a protest letter to Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, the Arab-African Non-Governmental Organisations' Union described the adverts "callous and amateurish," adding that contrary to the intended purpose the adverts were sending opposite messages to the youth.

"We find it to be most unfortunate that the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation management is failing to exercise moral responsibility but instead it encourages promiscuity amongst the youth on the premise that all can have sex so long they have a condom between them," Edwin Sakala of the union noted with disgust in the protest letter.

Pastor David Masupa of Lusaka said that as a "Christian Nation" Zambia should not encourage citizens to go on indiscriminate sex just because they have condoms but that the youth should be encouraged to abstain from sex all together.

In angry letters to the Times of Zambia and Zambia Daily Mail, parents claimed that the condom adverts were so offensive that many of them were having to forego watching the evening news bulletin because of the continued showing of material which disgusted them.

But up to last week the health minister was still insisting that the adverts would not be withdrawn from national television because they were there for a purpose.

He even quoted a local saying that to impart knowledge to a youth you must get down to the point.

"Vigorous public education campaigns on the importance of taking measures to control the rise of new infections should be encouraged. Government believes that the conspiracy of silence should be stopped and the message of the HIV/AIDS pandemic broadcast in all media available to bring home the point that we have to change our habits or we perish," Kavinde declared.

He disclosed that since the beginning of the epidemic one million adults and children are living with the AIDS virus and 650,000 cumulative deaths have occurred of which 80 percent are in adults between the ages of 15 and 49 years.

The scourge has in addition left behind 600,000 orphans of whom 18.7 percent are females and 9.3 percent males living with the AIDS virus.

But by week-end all the condom-use adverts had been withdrawn. Many political pundits believe the president must have intervened behind the scenes for the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation management to withdraw the adverts, quietly.