5 million South A ricans are HI positi e

Mr Mbeki has also been accused o poor judgement in addressing South A rica's Aids epidemic.The go ernment estimates more than 5.5 million South A ricans are HI positi e. Signatories included the American scientists Da id Baltimore, a biologist and Nobel Prize-winner, and Robert Gallo, a co-disco erer o the HI irus which causes Aids. They called " or the immediate remo al o Dr Tshabalala-Msimang as Minister o Health and or an end to the disastrous, pseudoscienti ic policies that ha e characterised the South A rican go ernment's response to HI /AIDS".Dr Tshabalala-Msimang, has been criticised or ad ising HI su erers to eat beetroot, garlic, lemon and the A rican potato to sta e o Aids. More than 80 international scientists and academics ha e condemned South A rica's Aids policies as ine ecti e and immoral and called or the dismissal o the country's Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, in a letter to President Thabo Mbeki. The scientists called Dr Tshabalala-Msimang an embarrassment to South A rica and said her acti ities undermined science. A hea ily-armed militia has crossed the nearby ri er just 10km away and has put a roadblock in place, robbing passers-by o their mobile phones and money."I there is no go ernment," said Mr Hogh, "e erybody who is strong will rob rom those who are weak They can do nothing - they ha e to accept it.". More astonishingly, in a country without a central bank or a unctioning ministry o inance or 15 years, customers are still able to pay or their products with the Somali shilling.The threat o iolence is ne er ar away though.

The district is ruled by neither and is not seen as important enough, strategically, to be ought o er.Abdi Hogh, the acting chairman o the elders in Marere district, said people simply wanted a go ernment "We ha e had a miserable li e or the past 15 years. illagers sit in the shade, drinking tea or chewing khat, the mild narcotic a oured by many Somalis, watching the day go by.Kiosks do a brisk business, selling tinned tuna and spaghetti, shampoo and sandals. I there is no school, no hospital and no peace it is ery di icult or people to sur i e." But amid the su ering, a le el o normality exists. "I we ha e a go ernment maybe that can happen."No one in Marere is prepared to express a pre erence or either the weak, transitional go ernment based in Baidoa or Mogadishu's Islamic Courts. "But he is getting better now." She le t the other children in Jilib, a town 20km away, with their ather. Last night she heard her our-year old son was also now ill.Ahmed Isaac was nine when the go ernment ell in 1991. "I remember people rushed into school saying the go ernment was gone." He has tried to escape Somalia or western Europe on se eral occasions, tra elling south to Nairobi in Kenya and trying to ind a people smuggler who will take him "I always got caught.

Now I can't a ord it." Mr Isaac has a young son and a pregnant wi e. "I wish to one day be a wealthy man and be able to support my amily and relati es," he said. We can't think o anything else." But Mrs Abuka, her husband and their our children cannot ind enough ood This year's har est has not been good A se ere drought has sent malnutrition rates soaring. She brought Arden to hospital two weeks ago a ter he got a e er and diarrhoea and began to rapidly lose weight "I thought he was going to die," she said. Malnutrition rates are consistently abo e emergency rates and ood aid is non-existent. Adult literacy is just 17 per cent, one in our children die be ore the age o i e.The only li eline is a hospital run by M?cins Sans ronti?s (MS ), which pro ides basic healthcare.