Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

The United Nations is urging stronger international cooperation and long-term strategies to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, which is causing devastation among peacekeepers and national militaries worldwide.

"Although we have made significant inroads in educating peacekeepers and national uniformed services about the risks of HIV," Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, told the U.N. Security Council Monday, "AIDS is still not part of core military business everywhere."

Piot said his agency is assisting some 53 member states with comprehensive programmes to address AIDS among uniformed services.

As part of that work, UNAIDS has signed with 15 ministries of defence, most recently with the Indian government, covering about 1.3 million active uniformed personnel.

Of the nearly 66,000 U.N. peacekeepers currently in service, India is the third largest contributor of troops totaling 6,176, ranking behind Pakistan (9,914) and Bangladesh (8,208).

Piot said that five years ago the Security Council adopted a landmark resolution (1308) underscoring the fact that the spread of HIV/AIDS can have a uniquely devastating impact on all sectors and levels of society.

"If unchecked," the Council warned, "HIV/AIDS may pose a risk to stability and security."

While significant progress has been made, Piot said, "I must emphasise that the threat posed by the AIDS epidemic has not dwindled. Indeed, it continues to outstrip our worst fears."

In a 39-page study titled "On the Front Line" released Monday, UNAIDS says that despite limited official statistics on AIDS in uniformed services, leaders from numerous countries, including several outside sub-Saharan Africa, have publicly acknowledged the epidemic is a serious problem in military ranks.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the region hardest hit by AIDS, evidence indicates that HIV prevalence may be high in many national militaries.

In 1999, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) declared HIV to be one of its "most strategic issues", while the Malawi Internal Security Minister urged that "the silence surrounding the subject of HIV/AIDS within the police services needs to be broken."

The study also points out that Cambodia's 2002 Defence White Paper highlighted the spread of AIDS as a key security concern. In India, AIDS is the fifth leading medical reason for being cashiered out of the army.

The Addis-Ababa based U.N. Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) warned last October that "AIDS-related erosion of armed and civil forces is jeopardising the security of many African nations."

Since countries from sub-Saharan Africa are key contributors to U.N. and regional peacekeeping, the deadly disease has also been spreading among peacekeepers.

Last year, the 191-member U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for a comprehensive strategy to eliminate sexual exploitation and abuse in U.N. peacekeeping operations.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, U.N. under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, told delegates Monday that since the adoption of the Security Council resolution in 2000, the United Nations has developed a strategy to reduce the risk of peacekeepers either contracting or transmitting the AIDS virus while on mission.

The strategy includes: the creation of specific capacity within peacekeeping missions to address AIDS; ensuring the availability of condoms and observing universal medical precautions; the development of voluntary counseling and testing capacities in missions; establishing monitoring and evaluation mechanisms; and setting up outreach projects to local communities and mainstreaming AIDS into mission mandates.

Perhaps the most essential partners, however, are the 105 countries which currently contribute about 66,000 uniformed personnel and more than 13,000 civilians to U.N. peacekeeping operations around the world, he said.

"This is a significant number of people, who at any given time, need to be advised and trained on how to do their part in the fight against AIDS. It is a serious challenge, but I think we have made serious progress," he told the Security Council.

He said that in 2000, there were just four AIDS advisers to U.N. peacekeeping missions. Now, there are 10. Since 2003, UNAIDS has also seconded an AIDS policy adviser to the U.N.'s department of peacekeeping operations in New York.

Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis of Greece told the Security Council that his country has not only recognised the sensitivity of the issue but also follows a strict policy requiring all Greek military personnel participating in peacekeeping operations to be tested for HIV/AIDS.

"The test is mandatory and confidential for all. There are also provisions for assistance to soldiers who are infected," he added.

Meanwhile, in a five-year review of the Security Council resolution, the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) said it finds direct links between the HIV/AIDS pandemic and national security.

In a report released Monday, the CFR said the pandemic, which directly afflicts some 40 million people and has killed more than 20 million people, is affecting the security of states throughout the world, weakening economies, government structures, military and police forces, and social structures.

The study, titled "HIV and National Security: Where Are the Links?", said that in less hard-hit countries, including those in Western Europe and North America, the national security impact of HIV manifests itself in the form of anti-Western resentment over inequitable access to life-sparing drugs; the use of HIV, itself, as a weapon or accusation; disinvestment potential; increased probabilities of local instabilities in strategic areas; and rising demand for direct financial and skills investment in hard-hit areas.

"While concerns about potential links between the pandemic and terrorism are certainly exaggerated", the report said it finds "that the HIV epidemic is contributing to social alienation and could provide areas of operation for outside terrorist forces".

Authored by Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for Global Health at CFR, the report recommends that wealthy governments must increase support both for targeted HIV/AIDS efforts in hard hit countries, and for overall poverty relief.

Further, they must recognize that these donor commitments cannot be revoked at a later date, as revocation would undoubtedly result in the immediate deaths of those HIV patients who have become dependent upon the treatments.

A 40-strong Military Advisory and Monitoring Team from the SA National Defence Force is being sent to the Cote d'Ivoire amidst continuing obstacles to the peace process there. But the new deployment is increasing concerns about the pressures being put on a force depleted by HIV.

The team's tasks will include liaison, planning assistance, monitoring and verification tasks and maintaining a presence at 11 disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration sites.

The contingent will add to those in the DR Congo, Burundi, Sudan and elsewhere on the continent.

SA is currently the tenth largest troop contributing country to the UN, with a total of 2,325 SA National Defence Force members serving in three UN peace missions in Africa.

Most recently it has contributed to the African Union mandated African Mission in Sudan with 320 SANDF and 59 South African Police Service members deployed.

The deployments are clearly giving SA more diplomatic clout, but military officials are increasingly acknowledging the pressures this remit has put on the SANDF. Only half of those returning from peace missions are willing or able to return. Of these half have been hit by HIV, say analysts.

Some 23 percent of South Africa's troops are officially acknowledged to be infected with HIV, a similar rate to the adult population at large, according to official statements. The army is now "starting to get stretched" with its peace missions in Burundi and the DR Congo, Brigadier General Pieter Oelofse, director of medicine for the SA Military Health Service told the second national AIDS conference earlier this month. HIV positive troops were not being deployed abroad.

FORMER South African National Defence Force (SANDF) chief Gen Sphiwe Nyanda says his resignation created opportunities for President Thabo Mbeki to find new blood with fresh ideas for the army.

Nyanda said at the weekend he was hoping to use his departure to encourage a limit to the service period of chiefs of defence of between three and five years, in line with international trends.

"I stayed for seven years as chief and this was just too long," he said. "I believe I reached a stage where I felt the force needed someone with fresh ideas to build and sustain its strength and prestige."

Nyanda was the man largely responsible for steering the SANDF through the troubled waters of unification and transformation in the first few years of democracy.

He was replaced by SANDF chief of joint operations Lt-Gen Godfrey Ngwenya.

Nyanda said he hoped to take a long rest following his retirement.

He said he would contemplate writing a book about the challenges he faced transforming the old defence force into a new national military establishment.

He ruled out any return to government, saying he had held a high and challenging position, and there was no other post close to that level that was available in government.

"I also have no desire to find any job in government," he said.

Nyanda declined to comment on speculation that he would soon take up a senior position in the mining sector.