Contact: Paul Davis 646-645-5225 (mobile), for Health GAP; David Bryden GAA, 202-549-3664

AIDS Activists Arrested at GOP Fundraiser;
Bush AIDS Policy Undercuts Efforts to Stem Genocidal Epidemic

WASHINGTON, June 19 (evening) - Forty people of faith and conscience took part in a spirited and non-violent protest tonight against President Bush's grossly underfinanced and narrowly-framed AIDS proposal, which was unveiled this morning in the White House Rose Garden.

The protest took place in front of the Washington Convention Center, where President Bush and CEO of pharmaceutical giant, GlaxoSmithKline, Jean Paul Garnier hosted a Republican fundraising event. More than a dozen protesters held up signs against the glass windows of the Convention Center, to convey their critique of Bush AIDS policy to GOP contributors. During the peaceful demonstration, Washington Metropolitan Police and the US Secret Service brutally assaulted the protesters and randomly arrested 3 activists from the Health Gap Coalition.

AIDS activist groups ACT UP, Africa Action, Global AIDS Alliance, Health GAP, and the Student Global AIDS Campaign sponsored the protest, which was also attended by members of religious organizations. Student leaders of the Student Global AIDS Campaign, from George Washington University, Wellesley College, the University of Maryland and other campuses, came out in force.

Activists denounced the global AIDS plan President Bush which announced this morning in a White House Rose Garden ceremony. They chanted that the plan was a hoax, as no new money was being proposed for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. Plus, two weeks ago President Bush personally derailed a bipartisan Senate effort that had been expected to win at least $500 million in emergency funds for the Fund.

GlaxoSmithKline is infamous for tying the South African government up in legal proceedings, blocking the Mandela Administration's plan to manufacture lifesaving antiretroviral drugs to stop the genocide. The company also influences Bush Administration trade policy, which obstructs impoverished countries from accessing generic AIDS medications.

Such chants as "Pills Cost Pennies, Greed Cost Lives" were led by activists Asia Russell and Sharonann Lynch of Act Up and the Health Gap Coalition, as scores of limousines brought hundreds of wealthy Republican donors to the event.

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