[afro-nets] Activists call on UK and France to end rivalry

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

Press Release: Activists call on UK and France to end rivalry,
and unite to end AIDS holocaust
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Global AIDS Alliance
7 February 2006

AIDS campaigners are calling on the British and French govern-
ments to end their ongoing rivalry and develop a common strategy
against what the Director of the Global AIDS Alliance is calling
"the AIDS holocaust".

In a report published today, the Washington-based Global AIDS
Alliance (GAA) calls on both French and British governments to
merge their respective proposals for an Airline Tax (the Airline
Solidarity Contribution or ASC) and the International Finance
Facility (the IFF), and to use resources from the Airline Tax to
help fund the IFF from 2007 onwards. Together, these financial
instruments could potentially raise the US$ 20bn a year needed
for the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, and for the Educa-
tion for All initiative (the FTI) - two mutually reinforcing
initiatives.

Paul Zeitz, Director of the Global AIDS Alliance said in London
today:
"We learn from the history of the 1930s that threats to our se-
curity cannot be dealt with by attitudes of 'appeasement'. To-
day, the threat posed to global security by the AIDS holocaust
means governments must exercise bold leadership, share big ideas
and develop common strategies.
Given that the world's superpower refuses effectively to exer-
cise such leadership, or mobilise the scale of funds needed, a
grand Anglo-French Alliance is now vital to end the AIDS holo-
caust. We urge the British and French to bury their differences
and rivalry, and to merge their respective proposals."