World Leaders Are Scarce as AIDS Conference Opens in Bangkok

A closed-door, by-invitation summit of the leaders of nine nations -- Botswana, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Nigeria, Russia, Rwanda and Uganda, and the head of the European Commission -- was planned for Monday at the 15th International AIDS Conference in Thailand. But according to UNAIDS Director Dr. Peter Piot, only President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda accepted.

Piot expressed disappointment that more heads of state did not attend the conference, as experience has shown the importance of a strong national political will in fighting AIDS. Political leadership on the issue has improved in recent years but "is still too weak in many parts of the world," Piot said.

UNAIDS has stressed the importance of putting AIDS on the agenda of political meetings like those of the Group of Eight. Piot and others have pushed world leaders to attend meetings like the one this week to link politics and public policy with AIDS science.

Piot said the plan in Thailand was to get heads of state to commit to prevention and treatment efforts to raise a generation free of HIV. One meeting organizer said invitations had gone out late, and some leaders declined because they faced elections and were dealing with other domestic issues. Piot said the experience of Tommy Thompson, US secretary of Health and Human Services, who was heckled at the last AIDS conference in Barcelona, may have dissuaded some world leaders from appearing at the Bangkok conference.

Piot was encouraged, however, that nearly 100 ministers of health, education, finance, defense and foreign affairs are coming to Thailand -- nearly double the number who went to Barcelona.

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