Declared by Participants at the 4th Indonesian Meeting of People with AIDS -
2004

In the "Cikopo" Statement, which represented one output of the 3rd Indonesian
Meeting of People with AIDS (PNO) in February 2003, participants noted that too
many of those who took part in the 2nd PNO (September 2001)-including our
supreme warrior, Suzana Murni-had passed away. They agreed and promised not to
allow such losses to recur before this 4th PNO.

Have we fulfilled this promise? Sadly, three of the 50 participants of the 3rd
PNO are no longer with us. Although this figure is somewhat better than before,
we admit that our struggles have yet to achieve the results expected.

We promise that that we will strengthen our efforts to reduce this death rate,
in addition to working hard to reduce the number of people who become infected
with HIV in Indonesia. Specifically, we will:

* Support to the best of our abilities all HIV/AIDS programs implemented both by
government and by the community;

* Endeavour not to infect anyone else (especially our partners);

* Be prepared to learn about HIV and its treatment so that we can be more fully
involved in our own health, and to provide information and counselling to other
people with HIV/AIDS (PLHAs); and

* Involve ourselves in providing voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), and
endeavour to persuade those close to us to be ready to be tested for HIV.

We also urge much greater effort by government, both national and local,
particularly as noted below:

* All HIV/AIDS control efforts must involve PLHAs, in accordance with the
principle of Greater Involvement of People with AIDS (GIPA). Of prime importance
is the involvement of PLHAs in provincial and district AIDS commissions (KPAD).

* We urge the provision of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to 10,000 people in
Indonesia by 2005, in accordance with the WHO's "3 by 5" initiative.

o This programme must fully involve PLHAs in the process to select recipients of
therapy.

o ARVs must be distributed equitably to all provinces, and to rural areas, not
just towns.

o In order to identify these 10,000 PLHAs, there must be greatly increased
efforts to scale up provision of VCT services throughout the country.

o There must be continued efforts to reduce the price of ARVs,including
government policy to exempt the drugs or raw materials from import duties.

o We urge the scale up of programs to train doctors and nurses about ARV therapy
(ART), as well as the development of a communication network among health care
workers, to disseminate up-to-date information necessary to manage their
patients.

o Correct and usable information about treatment must be widely available. The
role of peer treatment educators is crucial to ensure that therapy is correctly
managed, and to promote adherence.

Efforts must be made to recruit and train such educators, and provide them with
a living income.

* Much greater efforts must be made to ensure that people with AIDS who
are not provided with ART can be provided with prophylaxis and treatment for
opportunistic infections.

* We most strongly urge that surveillance programmes be halted if they cannot be
carried out in accordance with the laid-down procedure and accompanied by free
VCT services offered to all members of the sentinels surveyed.

* Much greater efforts are required to enforce universal precautions in
all health care services, especially in dental care.

* Community understanding about HIV/AIDS must be increased, with strengthening
of programmes to disseminate basic information, including about treatment, in
forms that can be understood and accepted, including in local languages if
required.

* We urge the provision of integrated and accessible health services for
injecting drug users (IDUs), covering all elements of harm reduction including
needle exchange, substitution therapy as well as the provision and use of
condoms.

* We warmly welcome the promise made in the Sentani Commitment to "make
efforts to reduce stigma and discrimination against PLHAs". However,we urge that
this is not just empty words, but is actually realized. We will evaluate this
commitment in part by the efforts made by the government to ensure that no
hospitals continue to claim to be "unprepared" to accept AIDS patients, an
"excuse" that is totally unreasonable and unacceptable.

We commit to use this Tretes Statement as an advocacy tool at national,
provincial and district levels, in communications with all parties related to
HIV/AIDS control, be they governmental, private sector or community-based and
religious organizations.

[Note: This Statement in Indonesian was signed by all 61 participants of the 4th
PNO]

The 4th Indonesian PLHAs Meeting was attended by 61 participants from 30 towns
in 19 provinces. For further information about National PLHAs Meetings or the
Indonesian Network of PLHAs, please contact the secretariat: Spiritia
Foundation, Jl. Radio IV No. 10, Jakarta 12130, tel: 021 7279 7007, fax: 021
726-9523, E-mail: yayasan_spiritia@...
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Cross posted from [asia-pacific-treatment-access]
Chris W. Green
E-mail [wartaaids@...]