Health GAP
www.healthgap.org

For Immediate Release 11 July 2004
Contact: Robert Dabney +05 08 86 112, rdabney@healthgap.org

ACTIVISTS PUT WORLD LEADERS ON TRIAL AT XV INTERNATIONAL AIDS CONFERENCE

(Bangkok) Ð Activists from around the world joined their Thai counterparts today putting leaders of the G-7 nations 'on trial" for their lack of support for the Global Fund. The group displayed oversized portraits of the heads of state and listed the charges against the seven. Members of the groups served as the jury, finding all seven guilty of failure to live up to their countries' commitments to provide $10 billion a year to the Fund.

"The countries of the G-7 collectively share responsibility for the needless deaths of countless thousands because of their inaction," said Kamon Uppakaew, chair of the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (TNP+). 'The people of the world, especially those living with HIV/AIDS will not accept the lies and excuses put forth by the rich nations. Therefore, we have found the leaders of those countries guilty of mass murder and issued citizen warrants for their immediate arrest."

According to the Bangkok 2004 UNAIDS report, $12 billion (US) is needed annually by 2004 to effectively fund the fight against AIDS. However, the combined spending among all countries, rich and poor, is a meager $4.7 billion annually.

President George Bush of the United States was charged and convicted just a day after his opponent in the 2004 United States presidential election, John Kerry, announced his support for providing $30 billion in funding for the fight against AIDS by 2008. This includes a significant increase in current funding levels to the Global Fund.

"No government bears a greater responsibility to providing dollars to the Global Fund than United States," said Sharonann Lynch of U.S.-based Health GAP (Global Access Project). 'What we have seen today is people from all over the world recognized that the United States and her economic allies have lied to people who are living with HIV/AIDS. The leaders of these countries committed in 2001 to funding the Global Fund. Their criminal actions have resulted in their convictions."

The G-7 group of industrialized nations and the leaders convicted by people living with HIV/AIDS are:

United States Ð George Bush
Great Britain Ð Tony Blair
France- Jacques Chirac
Italy - Silvio Berlusconi
Japan - Junichiro Koizumi
Germany - Gerhard Schroeder
Canada Ð Paul Martin

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