Submitted on: July 4, 1993

San Francisco, CA (EGCM) The San Francisco AIDS Foundation lauded a Brooklyn
U.S. District court judge who ruled the United States can no longer detain 158
Haitian HIV-infected refugees living in squalor at the Guantanamo Bay Military
Camp, which one AIDS activist has described as "an illegal concentration camp
for people with HIV."

"This decision sends a clear message to the Clinton Administration and the
country that discrimination against people with HIV and AIDS will not be
tolerated," said Pat Christen, executive director of the San Francisco AIDS
Foundation.

The ruling by Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr. may face an appeal by the Justice
Department. The decision to appeal would put President Clinton in the position
of appearing to waffle on a campaign promise to grant the HIV-infected
immigrants, originally detained by the Bush Administration, entry into the
U.S. The President also has not taken action on his promise to lift
immigration and travel restrictions on people with HIV and AIDS.

"This is the time for the President to stand by his promises," Christen said.
"It's imperative that the Haitians receive immediate medical attention, and
that they end their tenure as prisoners living in squalor. Clinton can ensure
that both things happen. It's time to put pressure on the Clinton
administration to act honorably."

In his ruling, Judge Johnson called the government's detention of the refugees
"outrageous, callous, and reprehensible," and said it violated their rights to
due process under law. He called the Haitians' plight "a tragedy of immense
proportion," and their continued detainment "totally unacceptable to this
court."

In Berlin before the Brooklyn ruling appeared, the San Francisco AIDS
Foundation, along with a number of international AlDS and human rights
organizations, held a press conference at the IX International AIDS Conference
to denounce the Clinton administration and to demand an end to the Haitians'
detention.

"This decision is long: overdue," said San Francisco AIDS Foundation board
member Tom s F bregas.  "I hope that the President will decide not to appeal,
since it would be an insult after not keeping promises on his Haiti policy.
What's been done to the refugees is travesty of justice DD illegal, immoral,
unconstitutional, and disgusting."

For more information contact:  Dave Ford; San Francisco AIDS Foundation; Post
Office Box 426182; San Francisco, CA  94142-6182; 415-864-5855 voice.  Be sure
to mention in your correspondence that you heard about this through The
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