HIV/AIDS activist welcomes Human Rights Watch stand
Htet Aung
Irrawaddy
23 July

Burma’s leading HIV/AIDS activist on Monday welcomed a call by Human
Rights Watch for international pressure on Burma’s government to end its
harassment and intimidation of AIDS activists.

“Human rights are very, very important in HIV/AIDS education and
prevention,” Phyu Phyu Thin told The Irrawaddy in a telephone interview,
reacting to a Human Rights Watch statement addressed to a conference in
Sydney, Australia, of the International AIDS Society. Human Rights Watch
called on conference participants to bring pressure on the Burmese regime
to stop harassing and intimidating AIDS activists.

Phyu Phu Thin was freed on July 2 after nearly six weeks of detention by
Burmese authorities for taking part in a prayer campaign for the release
of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Human Rights Watch said that her
detention showed how important respect for human rights was in combating
the disease.

“Scientific advances will have little impact if people living with HIV
continue to be stigmatized and abused," said Joe Amon, a molecular
biologist who is director of Human Rights Watch's HIV/AIDS Program.

Phyu Phyu Thin said the work by activists and other NGOs combating
HIV/AIDS was being hampered by government restrictions. “We can’t travel
freely or hold workshops and discussions on HIV/AIDS education and
counseling,” she said.

Amon said that while international scientists and experts were free to
travel to Australia to discuss the worldwide fight against HIV/AIDS,
activists were being harassed and jailed for their work to combat the
disease.

Phyu Phyu Thin said: “If we can enjoy human rights and if the government
spends more of the state budget in buying anti-retroviral medicine instead
of buying weapons from India, we can save the lives of many AIDS patients
who badly need the treatment.”

Phyu Phyu Thin and her group, mostly youth members of the NLD, are
currently providing ARV medicine, accommodation, and care and counseling
services for about 50 patients nationwide. Since 2002, her group has been
giving such services to over 1,000 HIV/AIDS patients.

“The situation we have seen daily is very bad,” she said. “Even now, five
new patients are waiting for me [in the NLD headquarters] to get medicine.
The funds we have are too limited to cover such daily demands.”

“We can not end the AIDS epidemic solely through science,” said Joe Amon.
“Scientific advances and human rights advances must go hand in hand.”