Aids cripples police force
2005-03-17 08:56
Maputo - About 150 police officers are dying every year of Aids-related illnesses in this impoverished southern African country, police commander Miguel dos Santos said on Wednesday.
The high death rate in the 13 000-strong force is crippling its ability to fight crime, dos Santos told state radio.
Southern Africa is at the epicentre of the Aids pandemic. An estimated 1.5 million of Mozambique's 18 million people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes Aids.
The police force has not been spared, dos Santos said.
The disease has slashed staffing levels. Those infected are often too ill to perform their duties.
"We have to assign them to what we call light duties," police spokesperson Jacinto Cuna said. "Sometimes they don't turn up for work. Other times they ask us to let them go home because they are not feeling well."
Dos Santos urged police to seek testing, stressing that those who tested positive would not be excluded from the force, but would be advised on how to cope with the disease.
In most cases, though, infected police recruits preferred to keep their status to themselves, rather than seek help, because of the stigma associated with the disease, Cuna said.
"They prefer to disappear and perish without it being known they are suffering from Aids," he said. - AP
- SAPA