UN urges Pacific nations to follow Fiji AIDS example

The coordinator of United Nations activities in the Pacific says he would like to see the leaders of all countries in the region follow the lead of Fiji’s President and Great Council of Chiefs in recognising the threat of AIDS.

The coordinator of United Nations activities in the Pacific says he would like to see the leaders of all countries in the region follow the lead of Fiji’s President and Great Council of Chiefs in recognising the threat of AIDS.The President and the council are co-hosting a week-long conference in the President’s village.Officially opening the workshop, Fiji President Ratu Josefa Iloilo told 100 regional delegates that leadership could make a difference in a fight against AIDS where money was a constraint. He said education was the only vaccine available and the message needed to reach all young people. The chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs, Ratu Epeli Ganilau, said the world stood by while AIDS overwhelmed Africa, so leaders in the Pacific should not stand by as passive observers while the region repeated that history.(Source: ABC Health News, March 2004)