Dear GYCA members -

I will be writing as frequently as possible about the 8th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific. I arrived in Colombo Saturday afternoon (after flying all night from Karachi to Dubai to Colombo) and went straight to the Youth Forum. The YF was a one-day pre-conference organized by the Youth Committee of ICAAP.

ICAAP held its opening cermonies last night with much pomp and circumstance. Although we had planned to have a GYCA meeting before the opening cermony, we were unable to do so due to the high security in the conference center which prevented us from accessing a meeting room. The high security was apparently due to the imminent arrival of Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Rajapaksa made a bizarre speech at the cermony, in which he emphasized that drugs and alcohol were stepping stones to other drugs and thus to HIV infection. It wasn't clear if he was talking about alcohol abuse or consumption in general, but either way it's incredible that public leaders are still permitted to make such misleading statements surrounding HIV/AIDS!

GYCA members Frika Iskandar and Rachel Ong read a statement at the Opening Ceremony which had been prepared earlier that day in the Community Forum. They emphasized the need for govt's and institutions to work with community-based organizations, youth, injection drug users, men who have sex with men, sex workers and other marginalized groups to effect change.

Deborah Landey, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, read a statement prepared by Peter Piot to the plenary that called for a shift in focus from short-term crisis mangement about the pandemic to a more sustainable, long-term response.

Michel Kazatchkine, head of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and Jokapeci Tuberi Cati from the Fiji Network for People Living with HIV, also delivered keynote addresses.