Top Official's Remarks Suggest US Opposes Saving Lives of Africans Living with HIV and AIDS

Following are excerpts from a letter to US Secretary of State Colin Powell from leaders of Africa Action, the Religious Action Network and the Health GAP Coalition. "We are writing to express our deep sense of outrage at the shockingly racist comments made by your Administrator for the US Agency for International Development, Andrew Natsios. ...According to an article in today's Boston Globe, Mr. Natsios said that Africans, 'don't know what Western time is,' and that, 'Many people in Africa have never seen a clock or a watch their whole lives. ...' We are writing to demand that you repudiate this offensive behavior. Someone, such as Mr. Natsios, with such ignorant and bigoted views does not belong in a policy-making position, and should be fired. We request that you issue an official apology and retraction on behalf of the State Department of which USAID is a subordinate, and state publicly that the Department itself does not endorse these racist views...."

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