Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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United Press International - Thursday, 10 May 2001
Eli J. Lake
Speaking Thursday before a House panel on foreign operations funding, Secretary of State Colin Powell said, "We will use funds that we believe are available from other accounts, not taking away from any of the HIV funding we are doing now, to make a significant new contribution to this new proposal of a trust fund, and do it in a way that will encourage many other nations to join us and many other organizations and private citizens and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and kids dropping nickels and dimes in money boxes."
Annan will meet with Bush on Friday in Washington to discuss the issue.
The announcement comes as the Senate prepares to vote on an amendment to block paying the last installment of Washington's back dues to the United Nations until the United States is restored to the U.N. Human Rights Commission. On Thursday, the House passed that measure by a vote of 252 to 165. On May 3, U.S. diplomats failed to garner enough votes to be re-elected to the commission, which it has sat on since its inception in 1947.
Powell said the White House was making a decision Thursday on a new account in the budget for global AIDS relief. But Powell, who was named this week by the president to be a co-chairman of the administration's AIDS task force, would not reveal details.
Some House Democrats are concerned that the new proposal may sap funds from existing U.S. aid programs.
"With respect to HIV-AIDS I understand tomorrow (that) the administration will announce its commitment to this international pandemic will take the form of a proposal to contribute $200 million from existing resources to an as-of-yet-undefined trust fund," Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., said Thursday.
"While the international community, the World Bank and the U.N. all seem ready to commit to such a fund. I want to stress that our own bilateral programs run by (the Agency for International Development) have been the most effective in battling this epidemic on the ground with real resources that actually reach real people."
Powell underscored the Bush administration's commitment to combating AIDS. "We are committed to playing a leading role in the fight against HIV-AIDS and other related infectious diseases, malaria and tuberculosis, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
"It's not just a health crisis, it's a crisis of nation states. Nations will collapse if they don't fix this problem. It's destroying families, it's destroying nations, it's destroying cultures, it's destroying everything that people live for and hope for. And it requires that kind of an approach, and the United States will be in a leadership" role.
The State Department announced Thursday that Powell will be traveling to Africa from May 22-28 in large part to "underscore the administration's commitment to Africa" and discuss the administration's HIV-AIDS policy. Powell is to travel to Mali, South Africa, Kenya and Uganda.
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