US President George W. Bush looked into the eyes of AIDS patients in this country that has stemmed its once-spiraling infection rate and declared: "Life by life, village by village, Uganda is showing that AIDS can be defeated across Africa."
Speaking on Friday in the courtyard of an AIDS clinic where he met about two dozen patients, Bush touted his multibillion-dollar global initiative to target prevention and treatment to 14 nations hardest-hit by the pandemic, including 12 in Africa. And he praised Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni for his government's latest awareness campaign, which promotes the "A,B,C,D" of HIV -- "abstain," change "behavior," use "condoms," or "die."
"The AIDS virus does its worst harm in an atmosphere of secrecy and unreasoning fear," Bush said. "... The president of Uganda speaks the truth. And therefore you're overcoming the stigma of the disease, and you're lifting despair."
PHOTO: REUTERS
Bush also called Museveni "a strong advocate of free trade."
But he made no mention of Museveni's hints that he may try to change the constitution so he can run for a third term, or that political parties are banned from raising money, organizing or campaigning throughout the country.
And though Bush praised the Ugandan leader as a force for peace in Central Africa, the president steered clear of any mention of Uganda's involvement in the five-year civil war in neighboring Congo.
When that war erupted in August 1998, Uganda sent troops there to back rebels seeking to oust then-President Laurent Kabila. Uganda withdrew its troops in May, but human rights groups accuse it of continuing to fuel the fighting in eastern and northeastern Congo -- where thousands have been killed -- by arming Congolese factions in the region.
Amnesty International urged Bush to press the Ugandan government to end all military support to the groups. In a statement, the human rights group also called on Bush to back calls for a "truly robust international military force capable of protecting civilians" in Congo. UN troops deployed in Congo can only fire in self-defense and have not attempted to stem the violence.
The US has indicated that it will support UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's recommendation to increase the UN peacekeeping force in Congo by 2,100 troops and strengthen its mandate.
"We are in discussions with the UN about sizing properly the force in the Congo and we've generally been supportive of making some alterations to that, if possible," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told reporters during a briefing on Air Force One. " ... I think everybody understands that we need very much to seize the initiative."
Uganda was the fourth stop on Bush's five-nation tour of sub-Saharan Africa, which ended yesterday in Nigeria. Bush was greeted at the airport here by gyrating dancers and drummers in native garb, then past the first big crowds of his trip as thousands of people lined his motorcade route into town.
The president has been championing his five-year, US$15 billion AIDS plan at every stop of his Africa journey. But back in Washington, the Republican-controlled House was shortchanging the initiative. A House panel this week approved only two-thirds of the US$3 billion available for the first year of Bush's plan.
"We'll work with what we get, but the president believes very strongly in full funding of this," Rice said, adding that the White House was making calls to urge lawmakers to allocate the total amount authorized. "It's not as if there aren't good uses for the money, and so he's pushing very hard on Congress."
The money would be used to buy and deliver medicine, train health workers, build and equip clinics, train childcare workers to attend to AIDS orphans, conduct HIV testing and provide home care. AIDS activists in the US worry that the full US$15 billion will never be approved by Congress, and have said even more money was needed to stop the spread of the disease.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia