‘Soldiers spread AIDS in camps’
Sheila C. Kulubya
Soldiers have accelerated the spread of HIV/AIDS in areas of conflict particularly in southwestern and northern Uganda, activists said yesterday.HIV/AIDS activists and researchers at the ongoing 3rd National AIDS Conference and 1st Partnership Forum said that military forces have accelerated the spread of HIV/AIDS in northern Uganda.Evelyne Aguti, an HIV/AIDS focal officer with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, presented a study that showed that the army now has about 2-5 percent HIV prevalence rates.
She said many women, including under-age girls living in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Uganda, see soldiers as their only source of livelihood.
"There is a lot of commercial sex in the camps, most of which involves soldiers," said Aguti during a special session on IDPs organised by the World Food Programme.
She said that young girls have formed a mobile unit, which usually follows soldiers wherever they are deployed.
According to UNHCR estimates, there are about 572,000 IDPs in northern Uganda.
Evelyne Apok, an HIV/AIDS counsellor from Pader, backed Aguti and said there is a high rate of rape in IDP camps mostly involving soldiers.
"The level of rape is growing although no one is talking about it," she said. "Wherever there are soldiers in an area of conflict, there will always be rape."
“And when you talk to them about condom use they say ‘before I die of AIDS I will have died of a bullet’," said a delegate from Bundibugyo.
Apok said that non use condoms by soldiers has increased the number of child-mothers in the IDP camps.
Delegates said that besides food, NGOs and government should also offer other services such as voluntary counselling and testing, anti-retroviral drugs as well as start up income generating activities for IDPs.
October 29, 2002 23:34:49
Gook
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