Africa Action
Washington DC Office:
110 Maryland Ave, NE #508
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 546-7961 tel | (202) 546-1545 fax
www.africapolicy.org

JUNE 8, 2001

Dear Secretary Powell,

We are writing to express our deep sense of outrage at the shockingly racist comments made by your Administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, Andrew Natsios. We represent organizations and churches advocating equitable access to treatment for people with HIV/AIDS around the world and especially in Africa where, as you are well aware, the majority of people presently living with HIV and AIDS reside.

According to an article in today's Boston Globe, Mr. Natsios said that Africans, "don't know what Western time is," and that, "Many people in Africa have never seen a clock or a watch their entire lives. And if you say, one o'clock in the afternoon, they do not know what you are talking about."

We are writing to demand that you repudiate this offensive behavior. Someone, such as Mr. Natsios, with such ignorant and bigoted views does not belong in a policy-making position, and should be fired. We request that you issue an official apology and retraction on behalf of the State Department of which USAID is a subordinate, and state publicly that the Department itself does not endorse these racist views.

This is the second time in the past two months that we have been forced to condemn the racism that seems to be a central determinant of US foreign policy as far as this administration’s response to the global AIDS pandemic is concerned. On April 30th we wrote a similar letter to Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O'Neill, requesting that he identify and publicly repudiate the unnamed senior official in the Department of the Treasury who told the New York Times that Africans lacked a requisite "concept of time," implying that they could not benefit from HIV drugs. This week we received an insulting form letter response from Secretary O'Neill that ignored the very issues we raised making clear his insensitivity to the racism in his department. It has been suggested that he may have been the unnamed senior official himself quoted in the Times article of April 29th. We hope that we will receive a more enlightened response to this letter.

US officials involved in shaping international AIDS policy should have a working knowledge of African realities, as well as treatment issues. If US officials lack such knowledge, we suggest they visit any of the numerous clinics run by local health care providers, governments, and NGOs, to learn for themselves about the capacity that exists to deliver HIV/AIDS drugs in Africa. A US policy that refuses to address the imperative of treatment access using such ignorance as an excuse has deadly implications.

The comments also reveal a lack of expertise on issues of HIV/AIDS among US officials shaping international AIDS policy. New combinations of anti-HIV drugs involve as few as six pills a day, and already are being administered in settings in the developing world including in Africa. Arguments about the inability of people to adhere to anti-HIV treatment regimes are often trotted out as an excuse for inaction. However, adherence rates achieved in developing countries are already comparable to those in the United States. US policy must be based on facts and not bigoted stereotypes

More important than the views of any individual, however misguided, are the policies of the administration. The nations of the world seem finally ready to begin addressing the AIDS pandemic in a way that is remotely proportionate to the scale of the tragedy. It is time for the U.S. to announce its commitment to increase its contribution to the Global Fund proposed by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan to address HIV/AIDS, as well as TB, malaria and other infectious diseases.

Given the moral imperative of providing life-saving treatments to the more than 25 million HIV-positive people in Africa, the administration and this fund must commit to do exactly what Mr. Natsios is advocating against: invest in treatment, the purchase and delivery of life-saving medicines, on a scale at least proportionate to investments in prevention.

We respectfully request an immediate and direct public response to this matter.

Sincerely,

Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, Religious Action Network

Salih Booker, Executive Director Africa Action

Sharonann Lynch, Health GAP Coalition

cc:

President George W. Bush
The Honorable Paul O'Neill, Secretary of the Treasury
Walter H. Kansteiner III, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (designee)
The Congressional Black Caucus
The Honorable Kofi Annan, Secretary General, United Nations
Dr. Peter Piot, Executive Director, UNAIDS
Zackie Achmat, Chairperson, Treatment Action Campaign