In Africa we demand immediate unconditional cancellation of all the illegitimate odious debts which African countries are being forced to pay back to the World Bank and the IMF. The debt's been paid many times over. And there's a direct link between the issues of AIDS and the need for debt cancellation. Because in many African countries that are heavily affected by HIV/AIDS more is being spent on repayment of this odious debt than is spent on AIDS drugs that people need to live. And also prevention programmes that people need to remain uninfected, those that are uninfected.
So it's absolutely vital to the campaign on HIV/AIDS that that debt is cancelled. I mean you can't give aid with one hand and take away more in odious debt repayments on the other hand. So without 100% cancellation we won't really be able to adequately fight HIV/AIDS. We don't want half measures like debt relief with strings attached that then ruin our economies and ruin our ability to respond to public health crises like AIDS. We want 100% unconditional cancellation immediately.