- (AFP) -- Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai, the first
African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, today reiterated her claim
that the AIDS virus was a deliberately created biological agent.
-
- "Some say that AIDS came from the monkeys, and I
doubt that because we have been living with monkeys (since) time immemorial,
others say it was a curse from God, but I say it cannot be that.
-
- "Us black people are dying more than any other people
in this planet," Ms Maathai told a press conference in Nairobi a day
after winning the prize for her work in human rights and reversing deforestation
across Africa.
-
- "It's true that there are some people who create
agents to wipe out other people. If there were no such people, we could
have not have invaded Iraq," she said.
-
- "We invaded Iraq because we believed that Saddam
Hussein had made, or was in the process of creating agents of biological
warfare," said Ms Maathai.
-
- "In fact it (the HIV virus) is created by a scientist
for biological warfare," she added.
-
- "Why has there been so much secrecy about AIDS?
When you ask where did the virus come from, it raises a lot of flags. That
makes me suspicious," Ms Maathai said.
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- Africa accounts for 25 million out of the estimated 38
million across the world infected with HIV, and the vast majority of infected
Africans are women, according to UNAIDS estimates.
-
- The United States on Friday congratulated Ms Maathai
on winning the Nobel Peace Prize, but tempered its praise over her claims
about AIDS.
-
- "She said (HIV/AIDS) was invented as a bio-weapon
in some laboratory in the West," a senior State Department official
said.
-
- "We don't agree with that."
-
- The official pointed to a report of those comments published
in August in Kenya's daily Standard newspaper, in which Ms Maathai was
quoted as saying that HIV/AIDS was created by scientists for the purpose
of mass extermination.
-
- --AFP
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