RWANDA: HIV-positive genocide widows seek US help

JOHANNESBURG, 6 Apr 2004 (PLUSNEWS) - Rwandan women infected with HIV through mass rapes during the country's 1994 genocide have asked the US to assist them in obtaining anti-AIDS medications.

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the genocide, when Hutu extremists killed more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and Hutu moderates and raped an estimated 500,000 Rwandan women.

A local organisation, Widows of the Genocide, polled and tested 1,200 of its 25,000 members in 2003 and found that 80 percent had been raped and 66 percent were HIV-positive

Few of the women can afford antiretroviral drugs and many "feel forgotten by an outside world that has failed to help them" access treatment.

[ENDS]