The 15th International AIDS Conference opened Sunday with the UN chief calling for stronger leadership from all levels.

The opening ceremony was held at the Arena of the IMPACT Convention and Exhibition Center in the north of Bangkok, with the participation of 17,000 participants from about 170 countries.

Speaking at the ceremony, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan noted that many countries only sent their health ministers to the six-day conference, and said,"The fight against HIV/AIDS requires leadership from all parts of government -- it needs to go right tothe top."

The secretary general saw progress made since the Declaration of Commitment was issued at the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in 2001, including the adoption of comprehensive, national strategies to combat HIV/AIDS by vast majority of member states.

Yet he noted that what has been done is far from enough and he is worried that several objectives the declaration set for last year had not been reached, the target of reducing the scale and impact of the epidemic by 2005 is not on track yet, and women are increasingly bearing the brunt of the epidemic.

Annan said,"It is clear that if the Declaration of Commitment is to live up to its name, we will have to do much, much better on several fronts."

The secretary general called for empowering women and girls to protect themselves against the virus, providing education, job opportunity and the rights to property ownership as well as accessto HIV/AIDS protection and treatment for them

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra warned at the ceremony that "it seems that HIV is still in its infancy and is likely to continue to spread, rather than to go away by itself."

He said his government can provide assurance that "people affected by AIDS in Thailand will, no doubt, be accessible to antiretroviral drugs."The Thai prime minister announced that his government has decided to donate one million US dollars per year for five consecutive years to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

Paisan Suwannawong, a former injecting drug user who has been living with AIDS for 13 years, told his bitter experience in the ceremony and gave the fact that every minute a person is infected with HIV by using a dirty needle, calling for attention to drug users living with HIV/AIDS.

The young man who has launched a campaign focusing on access to AIDS-related treatment criticized some governments and international organizations for making the task of prevention, poverty reduction much more difficult.

He said the US government and its policies affect the ability of people all over the world to enjoy their basic rights and needs."Billions of dollars are freely available for the killing and destruction in Iraq, while the Global Fund is out of money."

He also attacked multi-national pharmaceutical companies inflating the prices of their drugs without thought for poor people. He urged people to dream a day when the world will be filled with love, sharing and peace.

While Thai artists gave performance in the arena, hundreds of protesters shouted slogans outside. Some of them protested against Bush's free trade deal, saying it kills generic AIDS drugs. Some demanded for "AIDS treatment now" and "medication for every nation." Others called for the involvement of old people in the efforts against HIV/AIDS.

Source: Xinhua