Geldof insists declaration must be enacted

Failure by the EU to enact the Dublin Declaration, which will be produced by the conference this evening, would be "a grotesque evil with unthinkable consequences", Bob Geldof said. Addressing the conference yesterday, he also said the declaration should set more ambitious targets.

"While there are 1.5 million people infected in the region of concern [eastern Europe and central Asia] the declaration should be more ambitious with its stated target of 100,000 on anti-retrovirals by 2005.

"The declaration should put in place dates for effective national leadership, strategies and structures to be set up in order to combat the epidemic." When the West wanted to, it could "react with a wondrous and impressive speed" to guarantee our safety, he said. Sars, for example, was a momentary headline panic.

The singer turned activist said: "It could easily have been otherwise but thankfully it was not. The new avian flu has been controlled, we hope, this month. But flu kills the right kind of people - us. AIDS can, it appears, wait a little longer for our single-minded energies. For AIDS does not immediately threaten the monogamous, responsible, non-drug using stable 'us'. Truly, God must be middle-class and definitely comes from Killiney."

He was particularly critical that funds earmarked for fighting poverty in the underdeveloped world were not being channelled as they should. Citing the European Development Fund he said there had been $14 billion lying there for the past two decades.

"No-one knows about it [the EDF] so there's no projects and therefore nothing to approve. Meanwhile 6,000 Africans die daily. Why is the EDF not being used by the declaration and why are the people who administer it not in jail?"

Archbishop Desmond Tutu told the conference that governments could overcome the threat of HIV/AIDS if they really wanted to.

"We are not powerless. You here are people with very considerable clout. Use it. Save the world. You can do so by breaking the conspiracy of silence on HIV/AIDS. A public campaign to inform and educate, led from the top, disseminating correct information is effective. It happened for example in Uganda, led by the president of that country and infection rates are dropping there. We must not be in denial causing confusion and wasting valuable time," said Archbishop Tutu.

"To deny or obfuscate is to fiddle while our Rome is burning. People have died who could have been saved. Silence kills. Indolence kills."

He said the faith communities must speak up and convey the message that AIDS was not a punishment from God. "What sin has a baby committed that gets AIDS through mother to child transmission? A God who punishes a child in this way is callous and immoral. My God is not such a God." He said it was irresponsible to say the provision of education about safe sex and condoms would encourage promiscuity.

"Of course we would wish people would abstain. Of course we would wish people to be faithful to one partner. Of course we would not have people engaging in extra and pre-marital sex. But we have to accept in the real world marriages break down and be realistic in this matter of condom use."

Speaking at a press conference later, Bob Geldof said he was concerned nothing concrete or measurable would be produced. Asked to comment on criticism by some NGOs that the conference would result in no measurable commitments or new funding, he said: "The best-laid plans of mice and men at the EU often go awry," he said.

Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs Mr Tom Kitt denied there were no measurable targets in the Dublin Declaration and gave as an example a commitment to eliminate HIV among infants in Europe and central Asia by 2010.