US blocking international deal on fighting Aids

[Eugene]

US blocking international deal on fighting Aids

· Britain distances itself from Bush administration
· Negotiators try to salvage package at UN summit

Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor
Friday June 2, 2006
The Guardian

The Bush administration, heavily influence by the Christian right, is blocking
key proposals for a new United Nations package to combat Aids worldwide
over the next five years because of its opposition to the distribution of condoms
and needle exchanges and references to prostitutes, drug addicts and homosexuals.

The United States is being supported by many Muslim countries, including Egypt,
and various conservative African and Latin American nations. "There are a lot
of unholy alliances all over the place," said a European official attending
UN talks in New York last night.

Fraught negotiations were continuing to try to salvage as much of the package
as possible. More than 140 nations are attending the UN summit in New York
which began on Wednesday. The meeting is intended to update a 2001 declaration
that provided the momentum for a worldwide campaign against Aids. A new declaration
is due to be agreed today.

<snip>

The British government, which has sided with Washington so often
over the past decade, is in the progressive bloc at the summit, along with Canada
and other European countries, and is diametrically opposed to Washington over its
approach to Aids.

<snip>

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,,1788649,00.html

[OneBlueSky]

1. "The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which represents

Muslim countries, vehemently opposes references in the declaration to homosexuals, prostitutes and drug addicts, saying these should not appear in a public document. The US is supporting the OIC." . . .

proving yet again that one fundamentalist is pretty much the same as every other fundamentalist . . .

[Briar]

2. Strangely

the BBC reports this solely as muslim objections - it totally failed to reveal that the US also supports them in this morning's news programmes (which also devoted much time to an interview with John Negroponte in which he claimed Iran could have the bomb in four years. No mention of his sinister and criminal past passed their lips). The extent to which the BBC is now propagandising is outrageous.