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From: Rob.Bates@p1.f381.n634.z3.fidonet.org (Rob Bates)
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Subject: Australian AIDS News
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Date: 19 Dec 89 14:36:14 GMT
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AIDS WORKERS TO BOYCOTT SAN FRANCISCO

(Reproduced with permission from Melbourne Star Obsrever #111, 15 December 1989  
(C) 1989 Oz Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved)

Two international conferences on AIDS to be held in San Francisco in June 1990  
are to be boycotted by some AIDS organisations and individuals from seven  
countries in protest at the US immigration restrictions on people with HIV.

The Sixth International Conference on AIDS and the Non-Government AIDS  
Conference will not be attended by representatives of the International Red  
Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the Norwegian and British Red Cross have  
also said they will not attend.

Organisations in Britain, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland and Denmark have  
joined the boycott.

At an earlier AIDS conference in San Francisco, a Dutch delegate was gaoled by  
immigration officials upon entering the United States.

Since then the government has introduced a "waiver" which theoretically allows  
people with HIV to attend conferences. People applying for a visa must admit to  
being HIV positive and wait for approval from the US Attorney General. If the  
waiver is granted, a special mark - understood to mean HIV infection -is put in  
the visitor's passport.

AIDS workers have attacked the system as being cumbersome, offensive and a  
threat to confidentiality.

Jim Holm of the US National AIDS Network commented that "the procedure clearly  
compromises the confidentiality of HIV positive people and could be  
particularly serious for nationals of countries where the government suppresses  
the rights of people who are HIV positive."

Some delegates to the last AIDS conference in Monteal Canada complained of  
major difficulties when passing through US airports.

Peter Grant, President of the Victorian AIDS Council (in Melbourne, Australia)  
said that he personally had "great sympathy" for any move to boycott the  
conferences in protest.  He said that US immigration officials used the  
presence of the antiviral drug AZT in a person's baggage as evidence of HIV  
infection.

"My only concern is that these conferences will still go ahead, and if the  
communithy-based organisations are not present, the conferences will be even  
more medical," he said.

Executive Director of the AIDS Council of New South Wales (another Australian  
State) Bill Whittaker urged Australian AIDS organisations to join the boycott.

"I would find it repugnant to attend any conference in a country which has  
restrictions on people with HIV entering as short term visitors.

"A significant number of AIDS service organisations have already decided not to  
attend the San Francisco conferences. I predict the list will continue to  
grow," he said.

--  
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