Mon 1 Sep 2008 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
A suggestion by Niue's Director of Health that Pacific Island people with HIV should be locked up in a colony to isolate them from the general population has disgusted HIV education and support workers throughout the Pacific. Tongan-born Dr Sitaleki Finau has been reported in an apparently genuine but undated release by a Pacific news agency as saying that older Islanders "may remember the days when typhoid was rampant in the Pacific and homes were told to put out yellow flags as a mark for health workers and to warn people not to go there... We have tried successfully with other infectious diseases like leprosy, tuberculosis and dengue fever, why not HIV/AIDS?" He goes on to say in the report that people with HIV "should be locked up in a colony, where people living with the virus are looked after by their own peers, also people living with HIV/AIDS," "The emergence of human rights has impinged on the rights of people without the disease..." and "Now people who have sinned have more rights than those who sin against them." On the eve of the Pan Pacific Gathering for HIV+ People in Auckland, at which GayNZ.com understands there will be no representatives from Niue - which has no recorded cases of HIV - or Tonga, some Pacific Island HIV educators and support organisations have described Finau's comments variously as "destructive" and "disheartening", while Finau has been accused of being out "out of his mind." New Zealand HIV agencies have been more diplomatic in their responses. Body Positive Auckland describes the suggestion as an example of "the sort of stigma and discrimination that we hoped had died out years ago," and "a clear confimation that gatherings of HIV positive people such as this week's Gathering, are still essential." The NZ AIDS Foundation says "Whilst we all know the hurt and damage done by anti HIV and homophobic discrimination we can re-energise our hearts for the ongoing struggle by celebrating the amazing work done despite such opposition." The Foundation highlights the ongoing work of the Pacific Sexual Diversity Network, Tonga Leiti's Association, the Samoan AIDS Foundation, the Samoa Fa'afafine Association, and the Te Tiare Association. GayNZ.com's phone calls to the Niuean Government offices seeking clarification on Finau's comments have gone unanswered, but we understand that several years ago the Premier of Niue, which is an independent nation governed in free association with New Zealand, proposed passing a bill to ban HIV positive people from entering Niue.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Monday, 1st September 2008 - 3:31pm