Friday, 6 October, 2000, 14:50 GMT 15:50 UK
              Mbeki accuses CIA over
              Aids

              South Africa hosted the world Aids summit in July 2000
              President Thabo Mbeki has accused the US
              Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of working
              with drugs manufacturers to promote the link
              between the HIV virus and Aids to boost
              profits.

              Mr Mbeki made the comments at a closed
              meeting of his African National Congress party
              (ANC) at parliament last week, according to
              South Africa's weekly Mail and Guardian
              newspaper.

              Mr Mbeki said his own questioning of the link
              between the virus and the disease meant he
              posed a threat to the US, Western powers and
              the world economic order.

              Mr Mbeki has been widely criticised by the
              international scientific community and members
              of the South African establishment, including
              Nelson Mandela, for his stance on Aids.

              'Deranged'

              According to the Mail and Guardian report, Mr
              Mbeki said criticism of his Aids policy was a
              foretaste of foreign attempts to undermine his
              government.

              He said his advisers
              were trying to find out
              who was spreading the
              idea that he was
              "deranged", and that
              such reports were part
              of the campaign
              against him.

              Mr Mbeki repeated an
              earlier claim that big
              drugs companies
              required there to be a
              link between HIV and
              Aids in order to
              increase their profits.

              The comments come at an embarrassing
              moment.

              The government has launched a public
              relations campaign focusing on a public
              statement by Mr Mbeki that its policy was
              "based on the thesis that HIV causes Aids,"
              and admitting that he may have caused
              confusion.

              Confusion

              It has also launched a campaign to promote
              the use of condoms in order to check the
              spread of the disease and combat "confusion"
              on transmission.

              The comments also detract from the existing
              debate about the expense of anti-HIV/Aids
              treatments with many activists saying big drug
              companies could afford to drop their prices to
              the developing world considerably.

              There are also issues
              around drug patent
              rights - a number of
              companies produce
              cheap generic copies
              of HIV/Aids drug
              treatments but have
              difficulty getting
              permission to market
              them in the developing
              world.

              Campaigners say the
              cheapest HIV/Aids drug
              available in Africa costs
              about $100 per person per year but most
              Africans live on less than $1 a day
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