28.04.2001 - The Libyan revolutionary leader, Col. Muammar Al-Qadhafi, exposed the role of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the origin of HIV/AIDS and the spread of the virus throughout the world.
"The issue today, which no one dares address, is the origin of the virus; namely who created HIV/AIDS. The door is totally closed. Even experts and doctors present here in Abuja have not addressed that ticklish and very hot issue," Muammar Al-Qadhafi observed.
Speaking in Abuja, Nigeria, at the closing ceremony of the African summit on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, the Libyan leader noted that "CIA laboratories had lost control over the virus which was tested on black Haitian prisoners. And it's not Qadhafi who says so, but this is a truth divulged by scientists."
Col. Qadhafi rejected "the notion" according to which the disease was caused by monkeys from Africa as "utterly false and baseless".
"Our monkeys have always lived with us while the disease only emerged in the last two decades. It's a recent disease that dates back to the 1980s".
The Libyan leader also accused capitalist companies of engaging in "odious trade" by sacrificing the lives of sufferers of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases to make maximum profits.
He further accused those companies of prolonging the life of the virus and delaying the marketing of drugs in a bid to gain more profits at the expense of the millions of persons victimised by the pandemic.
He did not rule out the possibility that major western pharmaceutical companies and firms end up formulating an efficient vaccine and a treatment for that virus. But, he said, "they have preferred to exploit this human catastrophe worldwide in order to enrich themselves".
Col. Qadhafi accused western countries of "spending billions of dollars on weapons of massive destruction which kill hundreds of thousands of people while relatively little money is being spent on AIDS control".
These capitalists, he insisted, "seem to take some pleasure in seeing us suffer".
And the Libyan leader emphasised that "HIV/AIDS is not a disease strictly confined to Africa. On the contrary, he said, it's a pandemic that strikes the whole planet even if it develops quicker in Africa because of poverty, debts and other social evils colonialists have plunged us into".
Col. Qadhafi urged African states to primarily rely on themselves and on their own means to fight the AIDS pandemic.
Africa, he said, should "assume its responsibilities with courage and save its riches including diamonds, gold, oil, gas, fruits, water to find the necessary drugs and save its sons".
"Africa is today on the right track. It has started, with the coming into force of the African Union, its historic march for progress and development", Brother Qadhafi added.
Abridged from a report by the Panafrican News Agency (PANA) April 28, 2001, Abuja
