Global Fund withdrawal
Exactly a year after it committed US $100 million to Myanmar, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, on August 19, 2005, decided to withdraw from the country, citing travel restrictions. The decision by the Fund, which manages the monies raised by governments, business and private organisations, has been widely criticised. Myanmar has over 600,000 HIV/AIDS patients and one of the highest rates of TB in the world.
The Fund has so far disbursed nearly US $12 million in the country. Critics accuse the US, a major Fund contributor and a staunch critic of Myanmar's military junta, for triggering the move. Also, the junta government, in July 2005, imposed new travel curbs on UN staff over-seeing Fund programmes and put bureaucratic hurdles on medical supply procurements. "...you can't work...effectively if you can't even travel around to watch what you are doing,' said Global Fund spokesperson Jon Liden.
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