Indonesia accuses U.S. and WHO of bird flu conspiracy

Feb 20 2008

A new book by an Indonesian Health Minister has accused the United States and the World Health Organisation (WHO) of trying to profit from the spread of bird flu.

Dr. Siti Fadilah Supari says the two powers are part of a global conspiracy and she suggests the United States would use bird flu samples to produce biological weapons.

According to Dr Supari, WHO laboratories have been guilty of forwarding influenza viruses to Western companies so they can profit by selling vaccines back to developing countries.

Dr. Supari's views could very well undermine efforts to control the spread of avian influenza because Indonesia has already seen 104 deaths from the virus, almost half the world's total, and Indonesia continues to be a hotspot for the virus.

Regardless of claims made by the minister that she has agreed to share virus samples and allow all nations access to resulting vaccines, Indonesia still continues to refuse to share samples from human victims.

Dr. Supari is firm in the belief that the system of world health management has been exploitative, and based on a greed for capital and a desire to control the world.

Dr. Supari says some Indonesian seed virus samples were sent to a U.S. Defence Department laboratory, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where nuclear weapons are developed which she says is also developing biological weapons.

In the book Supari describes herself as the "divine hand behind avian influenza" on a crusade against an evil and "neo-colonialist" world health system and critics suspect she has lost touch with reality.

Indonesia's President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono however appears to have endorsed the book and he supports Dr. Supari's claim that the virus is under control in Indonesia and the occurrence rate and the number of affected areas are decreasing.

The WHO has declined to comment and no U.S. officials were available.