ZIMBABWE: Mugabe acknowledges HIV/AIDS crisis

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, in his first public acknowledgement of the AIDS crisis, has said that an estimated 1,200 people are dying in Zimbabwe each week from HIV/AIDS-related illnesses. Mugabe announced the casualty figures in a speech marking the country's 19th independence anniversary at the weekend. Government officials said an estimated 20 percent of the country's 12.7 million people were infected with the disease. A spokesperson for the national AIDS control programme told IRIN this week that between 1987 and June 1998 an estimated 33,250 women had died from AIDS-related illnesses. She said 725 children under five had died last year with 206 deaths reported among children in the 5-14 age group.