Insurgency infects Indian state's AIDS battle

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Insurgency infects Indian state's AIDS battle

13 Feb 2007 07:28:00 GMT, Source: Reuters

By Y.P. Rajesh

IMPHAL, India, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Rebels in an Indian state badly hit

by AIDS are hampering efforts to control the deadly infection by

extorting money meant to tackle it, healthcare officials and

voluntary groups said.

Militants in the remote, northeastern state of Manipur, considered a

global hotspot for the disease, have regularly threatened officials

and can take up to 20 percent of the money meant to fight HIV/AIDS,

they said.

Many groups, including the state AIDS control department, are

reluctant to spend money -- on everything from procuring medicines to

publicity campaigns -- because of the demands from rebels, known as

underground groups or UGs.

" If we spend money then we have to give a cut to the UGs, five

percent, 10 percent, 15 percent, whatever they demand, " said one

senior state AIDS department official who spoke on condition of

anonymity due to fear of the militants.

The fear is so intense that officials at the department said they

avoided sitting in their designated rooms for long and rejected calls

from unknown numbers on their cellphones. Doctors hesitate to work in

the department for the same reason.

The situation further complicates the battle against HIV in a country

that the United Nations says has the world's highest case load with

an estimated 5.7 million infections.

Manipur, an impoverished state of 2.6 million people, accounts for

just 0.2 percent of India's population but has nearly 8 percent of

its HIV-positive people.

The chief of India's National Aids Control Organisation, Sujatha Rao,

told Reuters she had written to Manipur's top bureaucrat to express

her concern about the reports.

CUTTING CORNERS

Manipur is on India's frontier with the " Golden Triangle " , one of the

world's leading sources of opium and its derivative, heroin, which

lies between northern Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.

Drug abuse is rampant and the impact of sharing needles has been

deadly: 90 percent of the nearly 50,000 drug users in the state are

thought to be HIV-positive, the highest rate in the world. Around

2,000 new infections are detected every year.

Half a dozen separatist rebel groups are active in the state, and

violence has killed more than 20,000 people since the 1960s.

" All of them call, send their boys and collect cash. In fact, each

group has its own rate card, " said a top official of a well-known

NGO, speaking on condition of anonymity. " Even student unions backed

by some UGs have joined this racket. "

The central government spends around $3 mln a year fighting HIV/AIDS

in Manipur, and a similar amount comes from abroad.

" If we have to spend money we have to manipulate our accounts to pay

the rebels and that is not always possible. But we also cannot stop

our programmes so we cut corners to make up for the loss, " said an

official of a second AIDS group.

" In fact, the UGs have also started ordering which voluntary groups

should be favoured when projects are distributed by the state so that

it is easy for them to siphon money. "

Last year three groups demanded the state give their front

organisations contracts to source medicines to treat infections

common among AIDS patients such as tuberculosis, ulcers, pneumonia

and diarrhoea, officials said.

When officials refused, the contracts were suspended for eight months

and patients had to go without free medicines and buy them in the

market -- until the authorities gave in.

" About 80 percent of HIV-positive people in Manipur are poor. For

them it is a choice between buying rice and buying medicines. So you

can imagine what they went through during this crisis, " said an

official at a third AIDS group.

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