Washington Post (11.27.2002) Manny Fernandez
Several hundred AIDS activists marched in downtown Washington
yesterday to call on President Bush to increase funding for
global and domestic AIDS treatment, prevention, and education,
in a spirited protest that ended with planned arrests in front
of the White House.
Demonstrators boarded buses from New York, Philadelphia, and
Baltimore to participate in the noon protest. The event -
organized by the Health GAP Coalition and ACT UP groups in New
York and Philadelphia, among others - was held as World AIDS Day
approaches on Sunday.
At Lafayette Square, where large protests are banned, police
on foot and horseback stopped protesters. In a scenario agreed
on with police ahead of time, 31 protesters, some linked by thin
chains around their waists, lay on their backs on the sidewalk
outside the White House fence and were arrested and charged with
conducting a stationary demonstration in a restricted area, a
misdemeanor, US Park Police said.
Activists said more than 3 million people, many in poor
countries, will die this year because they lack access to
HIV/AIDS treatment. They argue that the Bush administration has
made the war effort and tax cuts its priorities, ignoring the
plight of those with HIV/AIDS.
Paul Davis, a director of the Health GAP Coalition and one of
those arrested, said Bush “has not kept his promises to respond
to the global AIDS disaster.” Davis and others demanded the
United States contribute more to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria. The US pledge of $500 million is too
little, said activists, who also called on the administration to
support a global AIDS initiative for $2.5 billion in new
spending.
“It’s a weapon of mass destruction, and it’s being ignored,”
said Philadelphia resident Tymm Walker, 42, who has AIDS. In
addition, he said he has a brother with HIV and another who died
of AIDS complications. “I don’t want to see nobody else’s mother
go through what my mother has been through,” he said.
