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Hiroshima Mayor Calls on All Countries "Including U.S."
to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Hundreds of HIV+ Foster Children in NYC Subjected to Experimental
Drug Trials
Hiroshima Mayor Calls on All Countries "Including
U.S." to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
A large anti-nuclear rally in New York calls for global
nuclear disarmament ahead of a United Nations meeting to review
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. We speak with the mayor
of Hiroshima - where 60 years ago the U.S. dropped one of
two atomic bombs.
Representatives of 189 countries are meeting at the United
Nations today to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,
a month-long Review Conference that takes place every five
years.
The treaty calls for nations without nuclear weapons to pledge
not to pursue them and for those that acknowledge having nuclear
weapons to pledge to move toward eliminating them.
But some say the meeting appears deadlocked even before it
begins. Tensions rose this weekend between the United States
and two countries it has repeatedly accused of illegally pursuing
nuclear weapons.
On Saturday, Iran declared that it might end its voluntary
halt on enriching uranium and resume producing nuclear fuel.
Meanwhile, North Korea apparently launched a short-range missile
into the Sea of Japan on Sunday and lashed out at President
Bush calling him a "half-baked man in terms of morality
and a philistine whom we can never deal with." The remarks
were an apparent response to Bush's news conference Thursday
in which he characterized North Korean leader Kim Jong Il
as a "tyrant" and "dangerous person."
The New York Times is reporting that a proposal by Mohamed
ElBaradei - the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency
- to impose a five-year moratorium on all new enrichment of
uranium is virtually dead.
This past weekend, a large anti-nuclear demonstration was
held in New York ahead of the UN meeting. A coalition of over
2,000 organizations around the world, teamed up with United
for Peace and Justice to organize a march and rally Sunday
to demand global nuclear disarmament. Tens of thousands of
protesters marched past the UN building to Central Park.
Among those present were the mayors of the Japanese cities
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 60 years ago the United States
dropped two atomic bombs on the cities killing hundreds of
thousands of people.
- Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor of Hiroshima.
Hundreds of HIV+ Foster Children in NYC Subjected
to Experimental Drug Trials
New York City's child welfare department opens an investigation
into whether they forced HIV positive children in foster care
to submit to experimental AIDS drug trials. We speak with
the commissioner for New York's Administration for Children's
Services, New York City councilman Bill Perkins and Vera Sharav
of the Alliance for Human Research Protection.
Last December, Democracy Now reported that a BBC documentary
exposed how the city of New York had been forcing HIV-positive
children under its supervision to be used as human guinea
pigs in tests for experimental AIDS drug trials.
All of the children in the program were under the legal guidance
of the city's child welfare department, the Administration
for Children's Services or ACS. Most lived in foster care
or independent homes run on behalf of the local authorities
and almost all the children were believed to be African-American
or Latino.
ACS initially dismissed the allegations as unfounded and
stated that the source "appears to be a group of individuals
holding the views that HIV does not cause AIDS." But
just last week, ACS did an about-face and announced that they
will be conducting a review of their policy that was in place
the late eighties and nineties, which did force HIV positive
children in foster care to submit to clinical drug trials.
The commissioner of ACS will be joining us to talk about
this later in the show, but first we are joined in the studio
by New York City councilman Bill Perkins, who will be holding
hearings about this on Thursday and Vera Sharav, of the Alliance
for Human Research Protection.
- Bill Perkins, New York City councilman. He represents
Central Harlem, Morningside Heights, parts of East Harlem
and the Upper West Side.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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