RPCV Dan Mozena says if African nations lose the war against AIDS, the continent risks becoming the next breeding ground for international terrorists such as al-Qaeda operatives
Expert: AIDS could breed Africa terrorism
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DUBUQUE, Iowa -- If African nations lose the war against AIDS, the continent risks becoming the next breeding ground for international terrorists such as al-Qaeda operatives, an American diplomat said this week.
"If they lose the war on AIDS, everything else doesn't matter," Dan Mozena said. "The reason this is our top priority is not because we're nice guys, it's because it's in the interest of the United States."
Mozena, last week finished a three-year tour as deputy chief of mission in Zambia and becomes director of the office of Southern African Affairs at the State Department in mid-August.
He said Tuesday that fighting AIDS remains the United States' main goal in Zambia, a nation about the size of Texas.
More than 1 million adults - 21.5 percent of the Zambian population - suffer from AIDS, pushing the landlocked country into more turmoil every year, he said.
"If those states fail, they become breeding grounds, safe-havens for the next batch of Osama bin Ladens," Mozena said, noting the destruction and turmoil in Afghanistan proved appealing for the Saudi-born terrorist.
Mozena, who was raised on a dairy farm north of Dubuque, traveled in Zambia frequently, talking with orphaned street children and visiting villages devastated by AIDS and HIV.
"I want to see what's really happening, because I was in a position where everyone was reporting to me and telling me what happened," Mozena said.
Mozena said due mostly to AIDS, 850,000 children in Zambia are orphans - 8 to 9 percent of the country's population.
The life expectancy in Zambia, where about 380 people die daily of AIDS, has dropped to about 35 years from 52 in 1981.
Such devastation and destruction in the south African nation leaves it vulnerable to political instability, he said.
Mozena, a former Peace Corps volunteer, also warned ignoring the AIDS epidemic could have a more severe, immediate effect on the American population than terrorism.
"If the AIDS epidemic keeps sweeping across Africa, it will come washing up on our shores as well, in ways we cannot know."
Mozena, however, remains optimistic that a $15 billion, five-year, 15-country initiative by President Bush launched 1 1/2 years ago will help stymie the global AIDS epidemic.
