To the Minister for Health of

the Russian Federation

Mr. Minister!

We address to you on December 1 - the day which on the initiative of the UN is marked as the World Day of actions against the AIDS.

You know better than we do what are the achievements of our country marking this date: more than 70 thousand HIV-cases (to tell the truth, this figure should be multiplicated by five-six in order to get real data). 90% got the infection by intravenous drugs injections.

You know better than we do that Russia occupies today the first place in the world concerning the rate of growth of the spread of the HIV-infection. Today it is a real epidemic that will lead (if nothing is changed) to a situation when in three years a million of our co-citizens will be HIV-infected.

It is impossible that you don't know - as we do - that there is only one way to overcome this tendency, to stop the AIDS epidemic: to do away with the repressive prohibitionist approach to the policies in respect of drugs and drug addiction.

You know better than we do that harm reduction programs for a long time have been succesfully carried out worldwide. These programs include different measures, in particular programs of replacement of syringes. You know better than we do that the "Harm Reduction" program has been carried out in several regions of our country by the international non-governmental organization "Doctors Without Borders" ("Medecines Sans Frontieres") on means provided mainly by the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation), and that this program has already given impressive positive results. But you also know that everywhere it remains a private initiative of enthusiasts and that on the part of local and regional authorities it faces at best sympathy and comprehension, at worst - incomprehension or even open counteraction.

So why must non-governmental organizations and private foundations do their utmost to stop the AIDS epidemic? It is a primary task of the state, of the state health institutions, isn't it?

Why isn't there a state program of harm reduction still? There isn't such program both on federal level and, as far as we know, on the level of regions. It's possible that the Ministry which you head is working in this direction already, but we, the citizens who watch closely the information on this problem in the media, don't know anything about this.

But the replacement of syringes, distribution of serviettes and condoms, the explanatory work - all this is still far from what the state can and must undertake to stop the AIDS epidemic, to provide the right for life and health of the drug addict citizens, to tear them from deathful (in the direct dense of the word) arms of narcomafias.

You know better than we do (in any case, you should know as it's your official duty) that since 1994 Switzerland has been carried out the experiment on controlled distribution of heroin which is prescribed to the addicts in the medical institutions. You should be aware also of the positive results of this experiment: the probability of HIV-infection, hepatitis B and C, other infectious diseases proceeding from intravenous injections considerably reduces; the durability and quality of life of the addicts increases; the demand at the illegal drug market reduces, since drug addicts don't have to buy the drug on the street at the price and quality proposed by the dealers any longer. You should also know that other European countries have begun to follow the Swiss experiment: Germany, the Netherlands, Spain...

And only in Russia the government, parliamentaries, bodies for internal affaires and health continue to put out the fire with the gasoline, prohibiting totally not only to search the ways to solve the problem, but even to speak about it! We witness a deplorable result of this stupid, anti-scientific, repressive, murderous and criminal in the direct sense of the word policy.

Mister Minister, we address to you as simple citizens of this country concerned about a catastrophical spread of the AIDS, growth of the power of narcomafias that totally control the black market of illegal drugs, as citizens aspiring to save lives of our co-citizens who aren't HIV-infected for the present but really run this risk if the governement of our country doesn't change its prohibitionist policies.

We address to you also as activists of the Radical Party - a transnational and transpartyist non-governemental organization that for thirty years has been fighting against the prohibitionist policies in respect of drugs: in Italy, in Russia, in other countries, in the European Parliament, in the UN and its specialized agencies.

We call you to do all that lay in your power as the Minister for Health, as the member of the Government of the Russian Federation, and finally, as just a responsible citizen of this country, that is:

- to adopt immediately the state program of harm reduction at the federal level;

- to implement immediately in Russia the Suiss experiment on controlled distribution of medicinal heroin to the addicts.

We think that in the present catastrophical situation the Minister for Health hasn't right to keep silence and be inactive.

For these reasons we conduct today near the Ministry for Health which you head a manifestation under the slogan "Medicinal heroin against mafia and death": a manifestation against narcomafias, against the prohibitionist policy that nourishes them, for salvation of tens and hundreds of thousands lives.

Signatures:

Nikolay KHRAMOV, Russian coordinator of the Radical Party;

Valentina KUMSKAYA, translator;

Nadezhda KHRAMOVA, nurse;

Pavel SHAININ, lawyer;

Boris STOMAKHIN, journalist;

Alexey IGNATYEV, engineer;

Yury BEZGUBOV, manager-optician;

Svetlana MALIKOVA, photographer

Nikolay ORLOV;

Anna ZAYTSEVA, treasurer of the Antimilitarist Radical Association (ARA);

Andrey RODIONOV, employee of the ARA;

Kseniya VOLKOVA, student;

Dmitry PAVLOV;

Sergey PANCHENKO, student;

Alyona ASAYEVA, deputy secretary of the ARA;

Andrey OLEYNIKOV, phytotherapeutist;

Inna KOZLOVSKAYA, pensionary;

Mikhail DENISOV, student;

Ignat KALININ, student

Andrey RAKOV, journalist;

Walter PETROV, physician.