A panel of international experts is expected to tell the Security Council in a report on Wednesday that Liberia and its president, Charles Taylor, have been playing the largest role in the smuggling of diamonds from Sierra Leone. The diamond sales have paid for a guerrilla war there.
The report, circulated today among diplomats, seems to confirm what other reports have said about Mr. Taylor's role. It recommends that the Council embargo all diamonds from Liberia until it can prove that it is not trafficking in gems from Sierra Leone or arming the insurgents there with the proceeds of illegal sales. The report further suggests that a travel ban similar to one imposed on senior Liberian officials by the United States should be applied by all nations. "President Charles Taylor is actively involved in fueling the violence in Sierra Leone, and many businessmen close to his inner circle operate on an international scale, sourcing their weaponry mainly in eastern Europe," the report said. Mr. Taylor has been the major supporter of the Revolutionary United Front, a rebel army in Sierra Leone that is known for amputating limbs to terrorize civilians.
The panel said there is "unequivocal and overwhelming evidence that Liberia has been actively supporting the R.U.F. at all levels, in providing training, weapons and related materiel, logistical support, a staging ground for attacks and a safe haven for retreat and recuperation, and for public relations activities."
In addition to Liberia, Burkino Faso was cited as being actively involved in the illegal diamonds-for-arms trade. Seven other countries were recommended for a watch list: Uganda, the Central African Republic, Ghana, Namibia, the Republic of Congo, Mali and Zambia. "Invoices from these countries need to be thoroughly checked," the report says.
Sierra Leone now has a diamond certification system approved by the United Nations, and the panel said it works for diamonds that "enter the formal system." But not all diamonds come from government-controlled areas and not all traders can be assumed to be dealing with legitimate stones, the panel found. The panel also found that several Liberian-registered planes that seemed to be outside the formal control of the Liberian government are being used by arms dealers. It recommended that planes bearing Liberian registration be grounded wherever they are found unless they can provide correct documentation and meet other requirements.
Arms dealers from Africa and the Middle East are using Liberian registration to ship illicit goods, the report says. Among dealers the panel cited are Sanjivan Ruprah of Kenya and Victor Bout, who is said to operate from Sharja in the United Arab Emirates. Another businessman described as close to Mr. Taylor is Talal el-Ndine, whom the panel describes as a wealthy Lebanese who acts as paymaster for the Revolutionary United Front.
The panel also looked at efforts by Foday Sankoh, the rebel group's leader, to get into the diamond business when he became part of the Sierra Leone government in 1999 after a peace agreement. Mr. Sankoh is now in jail after turning against the government and after his forces attacked United Nations peacekeepers last May. But he was chairman of the commission for the management of strategic mineral resources in a short-lived power-sharing agreement that was intended to rehabilitate the rebels.
In that capacity, he and Sierra Leone's president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, persuaded the United States to help pay for a conference in March of this year to which American diamond-mining investors were invited. Among those sending a representative was Lazare Kaplan International, whose chairman is Maurice Tempelsman, who had been involved in diamond mining in Sierra Leone decades ago but who had pulled out as the country sank into chaos. Officials at Lazare Kaplan International say they attended the meeting at the urging of the United States Agency for International Development, but came away seeing no future in returning to Sierra Leone. Shortly afterward, Mr. Sankoh was again in armed opposition and the plan to redevelop a legitimate diamond mining industry was scuttled.
The panel that wrote the study was led by Martin Chungong Ayafor of Cameroon. The members were Atabou Bodian of Senegal, an expert from the International Civil Aviation Organization; Johan Peleman, a Belgian arms and transportation expert; Harjit S. Sandhu an Indian agent from Interpol, and Ian Smillie, a diamond expert from Canada.
Source: New York Times
Tuesday, December 19, 2000
Friday, December 15, 2000
Signing of the "United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime"
Japan signed the "United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime" on December 12 (Tue) at a high-level conference held in Palermo, Italy. The signatory was Mr. Kiyohiro Araki, Senior State Secretary for Foreign Affairs.
The Convention was drafted by the Ad Hoc Committee established by UN resolution 53/111 of December 1998, and was adopted by the General Assembly at its Millennium meeting on November 15, 2000. The Convention obliges the State Parties to criminalize certain activities including conspiracy of a serious crime and laundering of proceeds of crime. It also provides for the confiscation of proceeds of crime, jurisdiction, extradition, and mutual legal assistance, etc. The Convention aims at establishing a global legal framework to prevent and promote the cooperation to fight against transnational organized crime.
The Heads of the G8 countries reaffirmed in G8 Communiqué during the Kyushu-Okinawa G8 Summit in July 2000 that they would support for the adoption of the Convention by the end of this year. Japan has played a significant role in negotiations for the drafting of the Convention including its contribution in its capacity as a member of the Bureau of the Ad Hoc Committee.
The High Level Political Signing Conference is co-sponsored by the Government of Italy and the United Nations, which is attended by the President of Italy, UN Secretary-General, and also representatives from many countries including ministerial level officials.
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
The Convention was drafted by the Ad Hoc Committee established by UN resolution 53/111 of December 1998, and was adopted by the General Assembly at its Millennium meeting on November 15, 2000. The Convention obliges the State Parties to criminalize certain activities including conspiracy of a serious crime and laundering of proceeds of crime. It also provides for the confiscation of proceeds of crime, jurisdiction, extradition, and mutual legal assistance, etc. The Convention aims at establishing a global legal framework to prevent and promote the cooperation to fight against transnational organized crime.
The Heads of the G8 countries reaffirmed in G8 Communiqué during the Kyushu-Okinawa G8 Summit in July 2000 that they would support for the adoption of the Convention by the end of this year. Japan has played a significant role in negotiations for the drafting of the Convention including its contribution in its capacity as a member of the Bureau of the Ad Hoc Committee.
The High Level Political Signing Conference is co-sponsored by the Government of Italy and the United Nations, which is attended by the President of Italy, UN Secretary-General, and also representatives from many countries including ministerial level officials.
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
Friday, December 8, 2000
HOME LOAN AND MORTGAGE DISCLOSURE ACT
To promote fair lending practices, which require disclosure by financial
institutions of information regarding the provision of home loans; to establish an
Office of Disclosure; and to provide for matters connected therewith.
A copy of the Act can be found here. The Act has still to be proclaimed.
Source: Department of Human Settlements
institutions of information regarding the provision of home loans; to establish an
Office of Disclosure; and to provide for matters connected therewith.
A copy of the Act can be found here. The Act has still to be proclaimed.
Source: Department of Human Settlements
Monday, December 4, 2000
United Nations AIDS report confirms worst epidemic in history
An estimated three million people will have died of AIDS in 2000, the highest annual figure yet recorded. 500,000 of these were children. Although 2.4 million of the total deaths were in sub-Saharan Africa, the latest UNAIDS and World Health Organisation (WHO) statistics also show serious increases in the number of HIV infections in countries that are part of the former Soviet Union, as well as in South and South-East Asia. The UNAIDS/WHO report was timed to appear for World AIDS day, December 1.
AIDS has now killed a total of 22 million people, making it the deadliest epidemic in the history of mankind and overtaking the total of 20 million killed by Spanish Flu in 1918. The series of statistics in the UNAIDS/WHO report reveals the horrifying scale and spread of the disease. However, the report is just as staggering in spelling out the totally ineffective global response to this pandemic. In line with the attitude of the major Western governments, the report calls only for prevention programmes in sub-Saharan Africa—education and provision of condoms—and basic care and support for those infected. There will be no attempt to deal with the widespread poverty, collapsing healthcare systems, or to provide the anti-retroviral drug treatment available in the West. The derisory sum of $3 billion a year being asked for by the UN will condemn millions of people to die.
Total world figures for HIV infection were 36.1 million, of which 1.4 million are children. 25.3 million of these were in sub-Saharan Africa.
In Eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc as a whole, there were at least 700,000 cases of HIV infection, up from just 420,000 cases last year. In the Russian federation, 50,000 new infections were reported in the first nine months of this year compared to 29,000 registered in the previous 12 years. This increase is largely due to intravenous drug use and is likely to be a serious underestimation as many cases are unreported. The Russian Ministry of Health released a report estimating that about 14 million Russians, about 10 percent of the population, will be infected by 2005. “What we had predicted and feared is now happening, and that's an explosion of HIV”, said Peter Piot, UNAIDS director, pointing to the lack of concern shown by governments in the region.
South and South-East Asia now has 5.8 million people with HIV. Although this is only a small proportion of the region's population, figures are expected to rapidly increase, especially in China, Vietnam and Cambodia. Vietnam has had 2,371 deaths from AIDS, but it is predicted that this will rise to 46,000 by 2005—with 200,000 HIV infected. China is predicted to have 10 million HIV cases by 2010, with HIV cases growing at 30 percent each year.
A Reuters report from India states that the country now has 3.7 million people who are HIV infected, the largest number in the world after South Africa. A health ministry spokesman stated that effective antiretroviral treatment was too expensive for the country's health budget.
The UNAIDS/WHO report shows a slight fall in new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa, from 4 million in 1999 to 3.8 million in 2000. This is hardly encouraging news, given the fact that the figures are statistical estimates with large margins of error. It probably means that the epidemic has gone on for so long that it has already affected a high proportion of people in the sexually active population. The other possible explanation put forward by the UN—that AIDS prevention programmes are beginning to take effect in some African countries—do not seem credible when the dire situation in countries the UN claims to represent “success” stories—like Uganda and Zambia—is seriously examined. Experts fear that the epidemic could spread in highly populated Nigeria, where HIV rates are now about 5 percent of the population, increasing to the much higher levels now found in Southern Africa.
Another serious aspect of the UNAIDS/WHO statistics is the recent increases in HIV infection in the West. During 2000 it is estimated that 30,000 people in Western Europe and 45,000 in the US have been infected with HIV. This increase on the rates throughout the 1990s suggests that although the totals are still low compared to Africa, basic education on the danger of AIDS/HIV is lacking.
AIDS in Africa
Media reports over the last few days have provided heart-rending illustrations of the effect of the disease in Africa. A British Channel 4 TV documentary, AIDS The Global Killer, showed the situation in Livingstone, Zambia. On the intersection of main trunk roads the high HIV infection is attributed to a large number of sex workers. A local school was shown where the head teacher had lost so many teachers and pupils he is now allowing sex education classes in spite of opposition from the Catholic Church. Groups of orphaned children are shown sleeping rough; a mother dying from AIDS had been forced to send her child to be looked after by a charity. A highly educated civil servant took the brave decision to openly admit he had AIDS but has since been shunned by his friends. Despite his relative affluence he cannot afford the price of basic antibiotics to treat his infections.
BBC Radio World Service interviewed people dying with AIDS in Kenya, where 200,000 have died in the last year. At an orphanage, the reporter was shown the nearby graveyard of children who had recently died. In Harare, Zimbabwe, the local cemetery is now full because of AIDS-related deaths, and an appeal is being made for families to break with traditional custom and accept cremation.
Reports in Village Voice reveal the situation facing a group of AIDS patients at Gulu, Uganda. The vast majority of them had gone at least five days without food in the last year, demonstrating the effects of poverty on the disease. A partner in an advertising and media firm in Uganda was interviewed, as one of the 852 people out of 930,000 infected with HIV who has been able to afford antiretroviral drugs. His firm is now making less money, so he can no longer afford the $6,250 needed for a year's treatment.
The economic impact of AIDS in Africa is referred to by the UNAIDS/WHO report. Studies show the devastating impact that the disease is likely to have on the economy of Southern Africa, which contributes 40 percent of the region's economy. It is predicted that the country's Gross Domestic Product will be 17 percent lower than it would have been in the absence of AIDS, wiping $22 billion off the economy. In Botswana, with a relatively wealthy economy due to income from diamond mining, it is estimated that health spending will more than treble over the next 10 years.
Western powers largely ignore global catastrophe
The UNAIDS campaign theme for World AIDS day this year reflects the total refusal of Western governments to seriously address this global catastrophe. “Men make a difference”, targets the individual responsibility of men for the growth of the infection—along the lines of moralising Victorian philanthropy. “Harmful cultural beliefs about masculinity”—i.e. men forcing women to have sex and refusing to care for infected family members and orphans—are seen as the key problem. In contrast, the report hardly addresses the basic problems facing the majority of people in Africa—the provision of clean drinking water and nutritious food, to say nothing of healthcare and education systems which have rapidly declined under the IMF and World Bank privatisation programmes of the last period.
World AIDS day also gave US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the occasion to declare, “We are not winning the war against AIDS” and call for “a global effort with gutsy leadership, backed by donors and caring people everywhere.” This was said in the context of a US political leadership that has donated a mere $1 billion to combat HIV/AIDS to 75 countries over the last 10 years—an average of $100 million a year. Even this paltry sum is higher than that donated by any other Western nation. The US Congress has voted a global aid budget of $460 million for 2001, not only for HIV/AIDS but also for all infectious diseases. The figures contrast with an annual US defence budget of $310 billion. French President Jacques Chirac said that in the European Union, whose presidency is currently held by France, “we are faced, morally and politically, with a situation of failing to assist people at risk”, but he merely called for yet another UN conference to bring together representatives of developing countries, pharmaceutical companies and NGOs.
A response that is perhaps even more cynical was given by the World Bank. With its headquarters fronted by a huge 32-foot high red ribbon, a spokeswoman boasted of the $500 million that the Bank's board had approved in September for HIV/AIDS work in sub-Saharan Africa. The bank is providing “soft loans”—with lower than usual repayment terms—for 25 African countries, most of which already have a huge debt burden.
Several campaign groups are now focusing on the issue of anti-HIV drugs. At the Durban International AIDS Conference last July, drug companies promised to cut their prices by as much as 80 percent to African countries. The cut has failed to materialise. So far only Senegal has negotiated a price-cut on AIDS drugs. The charity Doctors Without Borders says that the combination of three drugs at present on sale in the US for $42.60 a day ($15,500 a year) could be sold to poor countries at $2.14 a day ($780 a year) and still make a profit.
In South Africa, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has won considerable support against the ANC government, which is refusing to provide drugs except for health workers infected with HIV and for those who can afford them privately (the latter group includes politicians who have their own insurance scheme). TAC's deputy chairman, Mark Heywood, told the world media that at present only 10,000 of the four million infected with HIV in South Africa had access to anti-retroviral drugs, and that a significant price reduction would bring access to 300,000 within two years.
However important the access to drug treatment is, as the UNAIDS/WHO report points out: “in countries that are worst affected by the epidemic, rising sickness and death often take place against a background of deteriorating public services, poor employment prospects and endemic poverty.” Combination drug treatments available in the West, which are not a cure but have been shown to halt the development of full-blown AIDS, can only be administered within an adequate health service. The drugs produce serious side effects and require constant care and supervision of patients. They can only be part of the solution to an enormous social crisis that must be tackled as a global emergency. Western politicians have so far completely rejected any kind of coordinated intervention that would mean spending hundreds of billions of dollars to halt the impact of this deadly disease.
Source: World Socialist Web
AIDS has now killed a total of 22 million people, making it the deadliest epidemic in the history of mankind and overtaking the total of 20 million killed by Spanish Flu in 1918. The series of statistics in the UNAIDS/WHO report reveals the horrifying scale and spread of the disease. However, the report is just as staggering in spelling out the totally ineffective global response to this pandemic. In line with the attitude of the major Western governments, the report calls only for prevention programmes in sub-Saharan Africa—education and provision of condoms—and basic care and support for those infected. There will be no attempt to deal with the widespread poverty, collapsing healthcare systems, or to provide the anti-retroviral drug treatment available in the West. The derisory sum of $3 billion a year being asked for by the UN will condemn millions of people to die.
Total world figures for HIV infection were 36.1 million, of which 1.4 million are children. 25.3 million of these were in sub-Saharan Africa.
In Eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc as a whole, there were at least 700,000 cases of HIV infection, up from just 420,000 cases last year. In the Russian federation, 50,000 new infections were reported in the first nine months of this year compared to 29,000 registered in the previous 12 years. This increase is largely due to intravenous drug use and is likely to be a serious underestimation as many cases are unreported. The Russian Ministry of Health released a report estimating that about 14 million Russians, about 10 percent of the population, will be infected by 2005. “What we had predicted and feared is now happening, and that's an explosion of HIV”, said Peter Piot, UNAIDS director, pointing to the lack of concern shown by governments in the region.
South and South-East Asia now has 5.8 million people with HIV. Although this is only a small proportion of the region's population, figures are expected to rapidly increase, especially in China, Vietnam and Cambodia. Vietnam has had 2,371 deaths from AIDS, but it is predicted that this will rise to 46,000 by 2005—with 200,000 HIV infected. China is predicted to have 10 million HIV cases by 2010, with HIV cases growing at 30 percent each year.
A Reuters report from India states that the country now has 3.7 million people who are HIV infected, the largest number in the world after South Africa. A health ministry spokesman stated that effective antiretroviral treatment was too expensive for the country's health budget.
The UNAIDS/WHO report shows a slight fall in new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa, from 4 million in 1999 to 3.8 million in 2000. This is hardly encouraging news, given the fact that the figures are statistical estimates with large margins of error. It probably means that the epidemic has gone on for so long that it has already affected a high proportion of people in the sexually active population. The other possible explanation put forward by the UN—that AIDS prevention programmes are beginning to take effect in some African countries—do not seem credible when the dire situation in countries the UN claims to represent “success” stories—like Uganda and Zambia—is seriously examined. Experts fear that the epidemic could spread in highly populated Nigeria, where HIV rates are now about 5 percent of the population, increasing to the much higher levels now found in Southern Africa.
Another serious aspect of the UNAIDS/WHO statistics is the recent increases in HIV infection in the West. During 2000 it is estimated that 30,000 people in Western Europe and 45,000 in the US have been infected with HIV. This increase on the rates throughout the 1990s suggests that although the totals are still low compared to Africa, basic education on the danger of AIDS/HIV is lacking.
AIDS in Africa
Media reports over the last few days have provided heart-rending illustrations of the effect of the disease in Africa. A British Channel 4 TV documentary, AIDS The Global Killer, showed the situation in Livingstone, Zambia. On the intersection of main trunk roads the high HIV infection is attributed to a large number of sex workers. A local school was shown where the head teacher had lost so many teachers and pupils he is now allowing sex education classes in spite of opposition from the Catholic Church. Groups of orphaned children are shown sleeping rough; a mother dying from AIDS had been forced to send her child to be looked after by a charity. A highly educated civil servant took the brave decision to openly admit he had AIDS but has since been shunned by his friends. Despite his relative affluence he cannot afford the price of basic antibiotics to treat his infections.
BBC Radio World Service interviewed people dying with AIDS in Kenya, where 200,000 have died in the last year. At an orphanage, the reporter was shown the nearby graveyard of children who had recently died. In Harare, Zimbabwe, the local cemetery is now full because of AIDS-related deaths, and an appeal is being made for families to break with traditional custom and accept cremation.
Reports in Village Voice reveal the situation facing a group of AIDS patients at Gulu, Uganda. The vast majority of them had gone at least five days without food in the last year, demonstrating the effects of poverty on the disease. A partner in an advertising and media firm in Uganda was interviewed, as one of the 852 people out of 930,000 infected with HIV who has been able to afford antiretroviral drugs. His firm is now making less money, so he can no longer afford the $6,250 needed for a year's treatment.
The economic impact of AIDS in Africa is referred to by the UNAIDS/WHO report. Studies show the devastating impact that the disease is likely to have on the economy of Southern Africa, which contributes 40 percent of the region's economy. It is predicted that the country's Gross Domestic Product will be 17 percent lower than it would have been in the absence of AIDS, wiping $22 billion off the economy. In Botswana, with a relatively wealthy economy due to income from diamond mining, it is estimated that health spending will more than treble over the next 10 years.
Western powers largely ignore global catastrophe
The UNAIDS campaign theme for World AIDS day this year reflects the total refusal of Western governments to seriously address this global catastrophe. “Men make a difference”, targets the individual responsibility of men for the growth of the infection—along the lines of moralising Victorian philanthropy. “Harmful cultural beliefs about masculinity”—i.e. men forcing women to have sex and refusing to care for infected family members and orphans—are seen as the key problem. In contrast, the report hardly addresses the basic problems facing the majority of people in Africa—the provision of clean drinking water and nutritious food, to say nothing of healthcare and education systems which have rapidly declined under the IMF and World Bank privatisation programmes of the last period.
World AIDS day also gave US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the occasion to declare, “We are not winning the war against AIDS” and call for “a global effort with gutsy leadership, backed by donors and caring people everywhere.” This was said in the context of a US political leadership that has donated a mere $1 billion to combat HIV/AIDS to 75 countries over the last 10 years—an average of $100 million a year. Even this paltry sum is higher than that donated by any other Western nation. The US Congress has voted a global aid budget of $460 million for 2001, not only for HIV/AIDS but also for all infectious diseases. The figures contrast with an annual US defence budget of $310 billion. French President Jacques Chirac said that in the European Union, whose presidency is currently held by France, “we are faced, morally and politically, with a situation of failing to assist people at risk”, but he merely called for yet another UN conference to bring together representatives of developing countries, pharmaceutical companies and NGOs.
A response that is perhaps even more cynical was given by the World Bank. With its headquarters fronted by a huge 32-foot high red ribbon, a spokeswoman boasted of the $500 million that the Bank's board had approved in September for HIV/AIDS work in sub-Saharan Africa. The bank is providing “soft loans”—with lower than usual repayment terms—for 25 African countries, most of which already have a huge debt burden.
Several campaign groups are now focusing on the issue of anti-HIV drugs. At the Durban International AIDS Conference last July, drug companies promised to cut their prices by as much as 80 percent to African countries. The cut has failed to materialise. So far only Senegal has negotiated a price-cut on AIDS drugs. The charity Doctors Without Borders says that the combination of three drugs at present on sale in the US for $42.60 a day ($15,500 a year) could be sold to poor countries at $2.14 a day ($780 a year) and still make a profit.
In South Africa, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has won considerable support against the ANC government, which is refusing to provide drugs except for health workers infected with HIV and for those who can afford them privately (the latter group includes politicians who have their own insurance scheme). TAC's deputy chairman, Mark Heywood, told the world media that at present only 10,000 of the four million infected with HIV in South Africa had access to anti-retroviral drugs, and that a significant price reduction would bring access to 300,000 within two years.
However important the access to drug treatment is, as the UNAIDS/WHO report points out: “in countries that are worst affected by the epidemic, rising sickness and death often take place against a background of deteriorating public services, poor employment prospects and endemic poverty.” Combination drug treatments available in the West, which are not a cure but have been shown to halt the development of full-blown AIDS, can only be administered within an adequate health service. The drugs produce serious side effects and require constant care and supervision of patients. They can only be part of the solution to an enormous social crisis that must be tackled as a global emergency. Western politicians have so far completely rejected any kind of coordinated intervention that would mean spending hundreds of billions of dollars to halt the impact of this deadly disease.
Source: World Socialist Web
Saturday, December 2, 2000
South Africa to Distribute $50 Million in Donated AIDS Drugs
After months of official indecision over how to confront the epidemic ravaging South Africa, the government announced today that it would make critical drugs available to people who have H.I.V. or AIDS. In a deal signed today, World AIDS Day, the government agreed to accept a $50 million donation of the drug fluconazole from the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The drug, which treats a deadly brain inflammation and other AIDS-related maladies, will be provided free in public hospitals and clinics for two years.
Earlier this week, South Africa's government gave conditional approval for a drug for pregnant women that reduces the risk of transmission to the fetus of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, according to officials at Boehringer Ingelheim, manufacturer of the drug, nevirapine. Dr. Nono Simelela, who heads the H.I.V./AIDS unit in the Ministry of Health, confirmed today that nevirapine would be distributed to pregnant women soon. Details about the drug distribution were sketchy, but they were welcomed by advocates and experts, who have criticized the government's lagging response to the virus, which has infected more people in South Africa than anywhere else.
During the last year, President Thabo Mbeki has confounded scientists by questioning the safety of commonly prescribed anti-AIDS drugs and the widely accepted causal link between H.I.V., the human immunodeficiency virus, and AIDS. Prominent doctors, researchers and advocates around the world have accused the president of wasting time while people were dying. In October, Mr. Mbeki acknowledged that his public statements were hampering efforts to curb the spread of the virus. Today, however, the government won praise for its efforts to provide expensive drugs free. In local pharmacies, one tablet of fluconazole costs about $17. ''Until now, it has been accessible only to people who could afford these extremely high prices,'' said Morna Cornell, director of the AIDS Consortium, which represents dozens of groups fighting the disease here.
This week, the United Nations reported that 25.3 million people in sub-Saharan Africa -- the bulk of the world's infected -- have H.I.V. or AIDS. This year alone, 2.4 million people in the region died of AIDS. The good news is that the number of new infections seems to be stabilizing. In 1999, four million people became infected with the virus, the United Nations said. This year, the figure is expected to be 3.8 million. But there is still a desperate need for affordable drugs. In South Africa, about 20 percent of adults -- about 4.2 million people -- are believed to have H.I.V. or AIDS.
Today, government officials pledged to continue to pressure pharmaceutical companies to lower prices for the developing world. The Pfizer drug fluconazole is the only outpatient treatment for cryptococcal meningitis, the brain inflammation that affects 1 in 10 AIDS patients, officials said. It is also highly effective in treating a fungal infection of the esophagus that afflicts about 20 to 40 percent of AIDS patients. The infection makes it painful to swallow and can result in severe weight loss and death.
Health officials said the drug would be available to all poor patients for two years. And even afterward, they said, Pfizer will continue to provide the drug to patients already taking it. Sputnik Ratau, a government spokesman, said it was unclear when fluconazole would start appearing in public hospitals. Some advocates for AIDS patients criticized Pfizer and the government for not providing the drug to the minority of poor patients who are treated in private clinics. Even less is known about how widely nevirapine, the drug that reduces H.I.V. transmission from mother to child, will be distributed.
Officials at Boehringer Ingelheim said the government offered only conditional approval of the drug on Thursday. Kevin McKenna, the technical director at Boehringer Ingelheim, said he was optimistic that final approval would come quickly. The company has offered to provide the drug free for five years. Mr. McKenna said he hoped that distribution would start by February or March.
Source: New York Times
Earlier this week, South Africa's government gave conditional approval for a drug for pregnant women that reduces the risk of transmission to the fetus of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS, according to officials at Boehringer Ingelheim, manufacturer of the drug, nevirapine. Dr. Nono Simelela, who heads the H.I.V./AIDS unit in the Ministry of Health, confirmed today that nevirapine would be distributed to pregnant women soon. Details about the drug distribution were sketchy, but they were welcomed by advocates and experts, who have criticized the government's lagging response to the virus, which has infected more people in South Africa than anywhere else.
During the last year, President Thabo Mbeki has confounded scientists by questioning the safety of commonly prescribed anti-AIDS drugs and the widely accepted causal link between H.I.V., the human immunodeficiency virus, and AIDS. Prominent doctors, researchers and advocates around the world have accused the president of wasting time while people were dying. In October, Mr. Mbeki acknowledged that his public statements were hampering efforts to curb the spread of the virus. Today, however, the government won praise for its efforts to provide expensive drugs free. In local pharmacies, one tablet of fluconazole costs about $17. ''Until now, it has been accessible only to people who could afford these extremely high prices,'' said Morna Cornell, director of the AIDS Consortium, which represents dozens of groups fighting the disease here.
This week, the United Nations reported that 25.3 million people in sub-Saharan Africa -- the bulk of the world's infected -- have H.I.V. or AIDS. This year alone, 2.4 million people in the region died of AIDS. The good news is that the number of new infections seems to be stabilizing. In 1999, four million people became infected with the virus, the United Nations said. This year, the figure is expected to be 3.8 million. But there is still a desperate need for affordable drugs. In South Africa, about 20 percent of adults -- about 4.2 million people -- are believed to have H.I.V. or AIDS.
Today, government officials pledged to continue to pressure pharmaceutical companies to lower prices for the developing world. The Pfizer drug fluconazole is the only outpatient treatment for cryptococcal meningitis, the brain inflammation that affects 1 in 10 AIDS patients, officials said. It is also highly effective in treating a fungal infection of the esophagus that afflicts about 20 to 40 percent of AIDS patients. The infection makes it painful to swallow and can result in severe weight loss and death.
Health officials said the drug would be available to all poor patients for two years. And even afterward, they said, Pfizer will continue to provide the drug to patients already taking it. Sputnik Ratau, a government spokesman, said it was unclear when fluconazole would start appearing in public hospitals. Some advocates for AIDS patients criticized Pfizer and the government for not providing the drug to the minority of poor patients who are treated in private clinics. Even less is known about how widely nevirapine, the drug that reduces H.I.V. transmission from mother to child, will be distributed.
Officials at Boehringer Ingelheim said the government offered only conditional approval of the drug on Thursday. Kevin McKenna, the technical director at Boehringer Ingelheim, said he was optimistic that final approval would come quickly. The company has offered to provide the drug free for five years. Mr. McKenna said he hoped that distribution would start by February or March.
Source: New York Times
Friday, December 1, 2000
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT BOARD ACT 38 OF 2000
The purpose of the CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT BOARD ACT is to provide for the establishment of the Construction Industry Development Board; to implement an integrated strategy for the reconstruction, growth and development of the construction industry and to provide for matters connected therewith.
Preamble
WHEREAS the construction industry plays an indispensable role in the South African economy in providing the physical infrastructure which is fundamental to the country’s development;
WHEREAS the construction industry experiences instability and interconnected structural problems which are associated with the declining demand in recent decades, the volatile nature of the demand and the consequent shedding of labour;
WHEREAS the construction industry operates in a uniquely project-specific and complex environment, combining different investors, clients, contractual arrangements and consulting professions; combining different site conditions, design, materials and technologies; combining different contractors, specialist subcontractors and the workforce assembled for each project;
WHEREAS the development of the emerging sector is frustrated by its inability to access opportunity, finance and credit as well as vocational and management training;
WHEREAS investment in physical infrastructure is constrained and there is a need to promote effective public sector spending and private sector investment and to interpret investment trends;
WHEREAS the construction industry impacts directly on communities and the public at large and its improved efficiency and effectiveness will enhance quality, productivity, health, safety, environmental outcomes and value for money to South African society;
WHEREAS the specialised and risk-associated nature of construction places an onus on the public sector client to continuously improve its procurement and delivery management skill in a manner that promotes efficiency, value for money, transformation and the sustainable development of the construction industry;
WHEREAS the development of the industry requires leadership and the active promotion of best practice; and
WHEREAS Government has a vision of a construction industry development strategy that promotes stability, fosters economic growth and international competitiveness, creates sustainable employment and addresses historic imbalances as it generates new construction industry capacity;
Source: SABINET
Preamble
WHEREAS the construction industry plays an indispensable role in the South African economy in providing the physical infrastructure which is fundamental to the country’s development;
WHEREAS the construction industry experiences instability and interconnected structural problems which are associated with the declining demand in recent decades, the volatile nature of the demand and the consequent shedding of labour;
WHEREAS the construction industry operates in a uniquely project-specific and complex environment, combining different investors, clients, contractual arrangements and consulting professions; combining different site conditions, design, materials and technologies; combining different contractors, specialist subcontractors and the workforce assembled for each project;
WHEREAS the development of the emerging sector is frustrated by its inability to access opportunity, finance and credit as well as vocational and management training;
WHEREAS investment in physical infrastructure is constrained and there is a need to promote effective public sector spending and private sector investment and to interpret investment trends;
WHEREAS the construction industry impacts directly on communities and the public at large and its improved efficiency and effectiveness will enhance quality, productivity, health, safety, environmental outcomes and value for money to South African society;
WHEREAS the specialised and risk-associated nature of construction places an onus on the public sector client to continuously improve its procurement and delivery management skill in a manner that promotes efficiency, value for money, transformation and the sustainable development of the construction industry;
WHEREAS the development of the industry requires leadership and the active promotion of best practice; and
WHEREAS Government has a vision of a construction industry development strategy that promotes stability, fosters economic growth and international competitiveness, creates sustainable employment and addresses historic imbalances as it generates new construction industry capacity;
Source: SABINET
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