Gays lose fight at AIDS summit
By DAMON JOHNSTON in New York
28jun01

DELEGATES at a UN AIDS conference last night headed into the final day of a historic global gathering with agreement on a plan to fight HIV and AIDS.

Weeks of wrangling ended in bitter defeat for Western delegates when they agreed to drop language offensive to some Muslim nations.
The socially conservative Muslim bloc succeeded in having high-risk groups such as homosexuals and drug users dumped from the UN's action plan.

They also prevailed by having a reference to human rights deleted from the official documents expected to be endorsed by the 189-member congress today.

"We are bitterly disappointed," said a source in the Australian delegation.

"But it was a necessary compromise needed to save the entire document that – albeit without referring to vulnerable groups – remains an important blueprint."

Spokesman for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission Scott Long said: "Such a decision on language guts the whole declaration – not only by excluding specific mention of gays and lesbians but by excluding mention of other vulnerable groups."

Asian nations have warned that hundreds of thousands of people are dying from the AIDS epidemic on Australia's doorstep.

Indonesia's Health Minister, Dr Archmad Suyudi, told the conference yesterday up to 120,000 Indonesians were infected with HIV/AIDS.

Dr Suyudi said in some high-risk groups, more than one in four people had tested positive to the disease that has already claimed 22 million lives.

The final document, to be adopted this afternoon, sets tough targets for fighting AIDS that every country, regardless of cultural and religious traditions, will be expected to follow.

As diplomats wrapped up negotiations in New York, a key US congressional committee in Washington agreed to pump more than $2.5 billion into the global campaign to halt the killer disease.

More than 22 million people around the world have died from AIDS and another 36.1 million are infected. with agancies

Aids is a cure for homosexuals and money to fight the spread of aids should not be wasted on them.