Campaigners urge G8 to make Aids history

Health campaigners today urged the G8 leaders to make Aids history.

Members of the Stop Aids Coalition called on leaders from the world’s richest countries to commit to universal access to treatment of the disease for all, by 2010.

More than 40 million people are living with HIV across the world, and last year there was 4.9 million new infections, 640,000 of them children aged under 15.

In 2004 more than three million people died from Aids-related illnesses.

The campaigners held a peaceful protest on Calton Hill overlooking Edinburgh city centre, with more than 100 cardboard eyeballs proclaiming: The World is Watching.

They then trained a giant telescope and eyeball towards Gleneagles, where the summit is taking place, reminding leaders that the world is waiting for them to act.

Eight of the protesters, accompanied by a lone Scots piper, wore kilts and sporrans and donned caricature masks of the G8 leaders.

A spokeswoman for the campaign group said: “We are going eyeball-to-eyeball with the G8 leaders to make our voices heard.

“The G8 summit is the key political event in 2005 that can scale up the financial resources so urgently needed to stop Aids.

“We have been alarmed by recent rumours that the United States may be pushing for a U-turn on the agreement of the G8 Finance Ministers agreement, which would commit to treatment for all by 2010.

“The Stop Aids Coalition is determined that the commitment to universal access to treatment will not be the first casualty of the G8 summit.”

The Coalition is made up of international activists all committed to Making Aids History.

Among the coalition is the Stop Aids Campaign, which includes Oxfam and VSO.