Genocidal duo's body count comes to light

According to a study published by Harvard University AIDS specialists the surplus deaths caused by the HIV denialist policies of former South African President Thabo Mbeki and his quack doctor and health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang stand at more than 350,000 lives lost. More than 350,000 impoverished South Africans lost their lives because of the genocidal policies Mbeki and Tshabala-Msimang enforced in the country. These policies, driven by the conviction that HIV is not the cause of AIDS, meant that even rape survivors were unable to access postexposure prophylaxis. That in a country were rape is endemic, and where the HIV prevalence stands at about 20 percent or thereabouts. I reviewed the moral implications of these policies here. Medical doctors were forced out of their public sector hospital jobs by ANC ministers, for no other reason than that they provided rape survivors with postexposure prophylaxis, in violation of the monstrous government policies Mbeki and his health prevbention side-kick implemented.

What I can't get my head around is that nobody in South Africa seems to think these days that it might be a good idea to hold both Mbeki and Tshalabala-Msimang personally accountable for these policies, and to prosecute them on genocide charges. Why do politicians seem to get away with murder (that's what their omission to act when they should amounts to)? Even in the USA these days a discussion has begun on whether the Bush administration officials responsible for war crimes (including the torture of enemy combatants) should be prosecuted. Not so in South Africa.

I can't help but wonder whether even black people have got used to the idea that their lives just are not worth enough to bother... How else could one possibly explain the South African people's inaction on this issue? Indeed, how else can one explain that someone with a proven track record in terms of maximising the number of black lives lost to ideological fanaticism remains the official representative of the AU in Zimbabwe. Mbeki, here too, happily goes over the dead bodies of an ever growing number of black people in order to support his fellow lunatic Robert Mugabe.

Responsibility to Protect

The UN Security Council's decision to do nothing about Zimbabwe is remarkable and it isn't. It isn't remarkable to anyone who considers the UN to be a by and large useless, and deeply corrupt organization, the disappearance of which would barely be noticed by most people except those who have their hands in the UN salary troughs. Of course, the UN can only be so good as its weakest links, and there's plenty of weak links. South Africa's voice on the Security Council has fairly routinely been supportive of the worst criminals as far as human rights violating states go. China couldn't possibly bring itself to issue a vote condemning Mugabe's junta because it's in bed, pardon, in business with the kleptocratic dictator and his minions. Indeed, just today the BBC reports that China, despite an official UN arms embargo, has busily sold weapons to the Sudanese regime. It is still training the Sudanese army in the use of these weapons. These weapons have demonstrably been used to murder innocent people in the ongoing genozide in Darfur.

Thankfully many heads of states, from George W Bush to Angela Merkel are falling over each other to promise to the Chinese government that they will attend the opening of the olympic games. It is business as usual. So, surely, if permanent members of the UN Security Council are actively supporting governments like the Zimbabwean and Sudanese, we cannot seriously expect the Council to act in any meaningful way. Indeed, if it acted against Zimbabwe, why should China not be next on its list. It seems then that we cannot seriously expect the Security Council to enforce the UN's 'Responsibility to Protect' doctrine - after all, we all know the saying 'don't throw stones while you're sitting in the glasshouse'. China, South Africa (and its President Thabo Mbeki) are anything but genuinely concerned about civil rights and the duty to protect citizens of UN member states from serious abuses of such. So, Bob Madhatter, go on... nobody is gonna stop you until someone finds oil in Zim. No wonder you declared, in view of the international community's failure to deal with you and your fellow thugs, that you're 'happy'. So would I be, if I was in your shoes.

South African government insanity on HIV/AIDS seems to continue

'Mbeki must be investigated'
26/09/2007 17:40 - (SA)

Cape Town - The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has called for a judicial investigation into the presidency and the health minister, as well as Christine Qunta.

In a press statement released on Wednesday, the TAC said there was prima facie evidence that illegal and unethical experiments were conducted on people living with HIV/Aids with a toxic and unregistered substance named Virodene.

The experimentation was for commercial benefit.

The statement claimed that the substance Virodene P058 was a derivative of the toxic, potentially lethal industrial solvent N dimethylformamide (DMF), which was never registered with a medicines regulatory authority of any state in the world.

There was evidence that the Office of the Presidency, President Mbeki and Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang were involved in these trials after the Medicines Control Council and the University of Pretoria ruled them unethical and in contravention of the law, the TAC said.

President corrupt?

This led the organisation to call for the appointment of a judicial commission of inquiry to determine to what extent the president, health minister, government official had been involved and how much experimentation on people was being conducted.

The TAC also alleged that Christine Qunta, a practising attorney, was an investor and director in a company that profiteers from selling untested and unregistered cures and treatments for Aids.

Qunta was allegedly appointed by the health minister to a presidential task team on traditional medicines.

The TAC alleges that Qunta and her legal firm had earned tens of thousands of rands in fees profiteering from the unethical, unscrupulous and unlawful activities of Matthias Rath, the vitamin salesman.

The organisation believed that "at best it appears someone in the presidency acted unethically in 2000 and 2001. At worst, there is direct involvement of the president himself in corrupt, illegal actions with potentially deadly consequences for patients with HIV."

Some good news from South Africa - at long last

Here's good news from today's BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL. It's a copy-paste job really. I am tempted to go on raving again about human lives lost due to the unimaginable incompetence of the current South African minister for health prevention, Dr (Beetroot) Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, and, of course, the country's slightly paranoid President Thabo Mbeki, but what's the point... readers of this blog will know. So, here's the BMJ item:

South Africans to get AIDS plan

Pat Sidley

Johannesburg

The South African government has finally introduced a full and far reaching plan to deal with its HIV/AIDS epidemic. But it will cost the country some 14bn rand (£970m; 1.4bn; $1.9bn) over the next five years. This amount was not planned for in the present budget for the year ahead.

The plan aims to give antiretroviral treatment to up to 80% of people with AIDS who need the treatment; to halve the new infection rate by 2011; and to ensure that all pregnant women who are HIV positive have access to treatment to prevent transmission to their babies. The plan envisages better spending of the large donations that pour into the country, with the intention of strengthening the health system and using health staff more efficiently. The whole process will be properly evaluated and monitored.

Less than a year ago, Mr Mbeki's government followed the president's view that AIDS was a syndrome and that "a virus could not cause a syndrome." Mr Mbeki thought that the extent of disease in the country could be attributed to poverty. He voiced misgivings about white Western experts who claimed that AIDS originated in Africa as though Africans were dirty and immoral. And he presided over a cabinet which approved a product as a cure for AIDS that was later found to contain an industrial solvent (BMJ 1997; 314:450).

The health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who had a liver transplant earlier this month (15 March), has previously advocated the virtues of beetroot and garlic over antiretrovirals and appealed against court decisions fought for and won by the Treatment Action Campaign to compel the government to provide treatment (BMJ 2006,333:167)

... there's something about African Heads of State

... well, some of em anyway. I'm sure you will remember the South African President's ruminations about HIV being not the cause of AIDS, and it all being a nasty conspiracy of white supremacists aimed at denigrating black men. Anyway, Thabo Mbeki has since been engaged in a bitter race towards the ultimate goal, namely the title of 'Nuttiest President on the African Continent'. His most recent efforts in that regard are not focused anylonger on AIDS, he has moved on to suggesting crime isn't that serious a problem in South Africa (population: about 40 million, annual number of murders: 18,000). Another serious contender for the covetted title was for awhile his that-time Deputy President Jacob Zuma. Zuma thought nothing of having unsafe sex with a woman he knew to be HIV infected. Incidentally that woman was not one of his wives (plural, odd, I know) and claimed to have been raped by Zuma. Zuma decided to take serious efforts at post exposure prophylaxis in form of ... guess what ... a shower. Yep, Zuma thought if he washed himself properly his chances of contracting HIV would be reduced. Truly challenging to determine whether Mbeki is ahead or whether Zuma is currently the frontrunner.

My apologies, I have to concede that I kind of digress. I really wanted to tell you about another serious African presidential contender for the title of 'Nuttiest President on the African Continent'. I'm talking about the Gambian President Yahya Jammeh. He claims (yep, proudly on the record) that he is capable of curing AIDS within three days. I understand he was offered a place in various local psychiatric hospitals but he declined, obviously worried that he might have to share a room some time down the road with Thabo Mbeki, or (scary thought) Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Mbeki's Minister for Health Prevention.