HIV/AIDS DISCUSSION AT FRELIMO CONGRESS SHOWS

UNCLAS MAPUTO 001531 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE PASS TO AF/S, AF/PD, AND OGAC PASS TO USAID FOR AFR/SA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL KCOR PGOV PHUM MZ SUBJECT: HIV/AIDS DISCUSSION AT FRELIMO CONGRESS SHOWS CONTINUED GRM LEADERSHIP, RANK-AND-FILE RELUCTANCE Ref: Maputo 1497 (NOTAL) ¶1. The recent congress of the ruling FRELIMO party (reftel) was the year's most important political event. Discussion of HIV/AIDS at the 1,600-delegate event demonstrated both the commitment of senior government and party figures in the fight against AIDS and some of the challenges they face. President Guebuza opened the Congress with a warning of the toll AIDS was taking on the country, saying "the most dramatic thing is that many of the more than a million and a half Mozambicans infected with HIV don't know that they are carrying the virus." Guebuza said the 500 or so new infections per day partly reflected the lack of knowledge of (other) individuals as to their status. "We are dying, comrades", he declared. "Mozambicans are dying. HIV/AIDS is becoming a serious obstacle to our efforts in the fight against poverty." Guebuza added that far too many Mozambican delayed seeking help from the health services, often going to health facilities only when they were in the final stages of the disease. Guebuza called on party militants to "explore the options that should be followed by their government" so that testing would increase and the disease could be detected much earlier. ¶2. Prime Minister Luisa Diogo also focused on AIDS in her speech to delegates, emphasizing both the importance of prevention and the ongoing expansion in ARV treatment. Diogo said the GRM wanted to increase the number of people receiving ARV treatment from just under 20,000 in late 2005 to at least 40,000 by the end of the year. She added that by the first quarter of 2007, ARVs would be available in each of the country's 128 districts. (Comment: Press reports have not indicated whether she gave the USG or other donors credit for our assistance in making this possible.) Press reports stated, however, that it is believed that between 200,000 and 300,000 Mozambicans have reached the stage in the disease where they should be on ARVs. Graca Machel, the widow of Mozambique's first president and a powerful figure in the party who heads an NGO that receives AIDS funding from USAID and other donors, also emphasized the importance of fighting the disease. ¶3. The most dramatic moments came from Guebuza's predecessor as president, Joaquim Chissano, who emphasized the importance of testing. Chissano said one reason the campaign against AIDS had not provided the hoped-for results in Africa was the failure to take tests, saying "We're ashamed to find out whether we're ill or not...We have no problem in being tested for malaria, which also kills, so why don't we take the HIV test?" Chissano pledged that, as soon as he returned to Maputo from the Congress, he would go to a Voluntary Counseling and Testing center and take the test. He then challenged delegates to follow him, saying that if they wanted, he would take the test at the site of the Congress the next day, and asking which delegates would go with him to be tested. The response was disappointing, as only a few delegates' hands rose. ¶4. Comment: Guebuza and the other senior political figures who spoke at the congress are seized with the importance of the fight against AIDS. The lack of a response to Chissano illustrates the continuing reluctance of many Mozambicans to confront the disease, at least in public. Nevertheless, we hope that the events of the congress will increase momentum for future individual as well as official action. We continue to remind senior GRM officials at every opportunity of the importance of sustained effort to change public attitudes and behavior. They understand both the urgency and the difficulty of that task. End comment. DUDLEY