Date: Fri, 31 Mar 1995 11:28:59 EST From: Bj|rn Skolander To: Multiple recipients of list GLB-NEWS Subject: RUSSIA: YELTSIN URGED NOT TO SIGN AIDS LAW YELTSIN URGED NOT TO SIGN AIDS LAW. AIDS-prevention activists inside and outside Russia have appealed to President Boris Yeltsin not to sign a draft AIDS law on 31 March, Russian and Western agencies reported. The law, passed unanimously by the State Duma on 24 February, would impose mandatory AIDS tests on foreigners wishing to stay in Russia longer than three months, refugees, employees of certain enterprises, and prison inmates. The law's critics say mandatory testing is costly, unenforceable, and will not halt the spread of the virus. They also charge that the law contravenes the declaration Russia signed at the December 1994 Paris AIDS summit and contains internal contradictions. For instance, the law guarantees Russian citizens access to voluntary, anonymous AIDS testing and full rights if they are found HIV-positive, yet it goes on to say that some of those rights may be restricted. There are now 883 officially registered HIV-positive cases in Russia, but experts say the real number of infected citizens is much higher. Interfax reported. -- Laura Belin, OMRI (Open Media Research Institute), Inc.