Dear all,

(PLEASE NOTE: I wrote this message as my personal message as a member of Africa
Japan Forum, the NGO I belong, to inform the updated situation on the problem
of the postponement of 7th ICAAP).

Dr. Tadamitsu Kishimoto, the chair of the 7th International Conference on AIDS
in Asia and Pacific (ICAAP) sent his message for the members of Local organizing
Committee (LOC) of ICAAP that he received the letter of the
chair of AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific (ASAP), which has the right to
decide the venue of ICAAP, which stated that ASAP finally decided to agree with
the postponement of the 7th ICAAP to 2005. The original proposition of
postponing the 7th ICAAP to 2005 was submitted by the Local Organizing Committee
(LOC) of ICAAP following the result of the vote of its members, and after that
the long negotiation between LOC and ASAP had been continued until yesterday.
This agreement means that the 7th ICAAP will surely be postponed to summer or
fall of 2005. Following the agreement, the LOC will decide its final decision to
postpone the 7th ICAAP in early July.

The reason of the postponement of the ICAAP is, according to the LOC, to avoid
SARS and SARS panic, the epidemic which was outbroken and spread wider in East
Asia this winter and spring. The LOC will soon release its public statement on
the postponement of the 7th ICAAP.

It is quite unfortunate for Asian/Pacific HIV/AIDS communities (PHAs, people in
vulnerable communities and people working in AIDS service organizations) that
one of the great opportunities to meet each other and discuss/formulate our
policy/strategy to fight HIV/AIDS in Asia/Pacific was lost in this year.
Especially, the postponement was quite a damage for us, Japanese HIV/AIDS
communities, because we lost their biggest opportunity after Yokohama
International AIDS Conference on 1994 to make wider relationship with
Asian/Pacific communities and integrate themselves into these communities.

As for "access to treatment" issues, we, Africa Japan Forum (AJF) and some other
Japanese NGOs were working to prepare a series of symposia and workshops
inside/outside the ICAAP to have the opportunities of discussing and formulating
Asia/Pacific strategies on this issue to the coming International AIDS
Conference in Bangkok, which is the opportunity to follow-up the UNGASS
Declaration on Committment. The postponement is quite a damage, but we will
continue our effort to organize some alternative opportunities (e.g. seminars or
round-tables) in November as a part of the regional follow-up process of
the ITPS Summit and the September Round-Table in Indonesia. And the LOC will
also plan some alternative events in November. Probably we will be able to show
our plan of these alternative opportunities by, at the latest, the end of July.

Sincerely Yours,

Masaki Inaba
Board Member, Africa Japan Forum
E-mail: pinktri@...