Clinton helps Liberia fight Aids

2006-07-18 07:18

Monrovia - Former United States president Bill Clinton committed funding to help Liberia set up a health care infrastructure needed to fight Aids in the West African nation.

Clinton signed an agreement on Monday with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as part of the anti-Aids campaign by his Clinton Foundation, which seeks support and medical attention for those suffering from the killer immune system disease.

Clinton called the agreement the beginning of a long-term partnership between his foundation and Liberia. Financial details of the deal were not immediately available.

Aids 'a problem to be addressed'

Clinton said the memorandum committed his foundation to help construct the health care infrastructure, "to care for people, to help people determine their status, to realise that this is nothing to be ashamed of, but a problem to be addressed and to provide medicine at the lowest cost available anywhere in the world".

He also called for debt relief for Liberia as a way of enabling the country to forge ahead with post-war reconstruction. Liberia recently emerged from years of war and violence.

Sirleaf commended Clinton's help and called his visit "great motivation" for the country.

Sirleaf said: "It gives them hope. It says finally we are getting some attention, finally we're doing the things that will set us and our country back on course toward progress, toward reconciliation, toward sustainable growth and development."

- AP