HIV spreading among indigenous communities: Survival

HIV spreading among indigenous communities: Survival
A man is seen with an AIDS awareness message painted on his head in January 2006. Indigenous communities around the world have been hit by rising HIV/AIDS rates to increased contact with outsiders and social upheaval, a report by Survival International said on Thursday.(AFP/File/Indranil Mukherjee)LONDON (AFP) - Indigenous communities around the world have been hit by rising HIV/AIDS rates to increased contact with outsiders and social upheaval, a report by Survival International said on Thursday.
The report, which comes two days before World AIDS Day, cited as examples of tribes in Indonesia's West Papua province, the Central Kalahari in Botswana and the Yanomani Indians in Brazil.
"Tribal people die because their land is invaded and taken and because they succumb to outside diseases they never knew before," said the London-based group's Director Stephen Corry in a statement.
"Increasingly now we can add HIV/AIDS to the list of killers. It is striking the most vulnerable peoples of all: those who have no grasp of the risks of unprotected sex; no access to condoms; no appropriate treatment; and whose numbers are already small.
"The first solution is the simplest -- governments must ensure tribal lands are properly protected."
According to Survival, the HIV/AIDS rate in West Papua -- home to 312 different tribes -- are 15 times as higher than Indonesia as a whole.
It said some tribespeople believe that the Indonesian military, which occupies the province, is introducing the virus to wipe out entire communities.
In Botswana, the disease was "virtually unknown" among tribespeople in the Central Kalahari before the country's government evicted them from their ancestral desert homeland, Survival's report, "Progress Can Kill", said.
"But in New Xade resettlement camp in 2002, at least 40 percent of Bushman deaths were due to AIDS," the organisation said.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, Survival says that Yanomani Indians claim soldiers "stationed on their land have brought gonorrhoea and syphilis to their communities through sexual exploitation of tribal women."
"They fear that the soldiers will also transmit HIV/AIDS."