[e-farmacos] Brasil notifica amenazas a German Velasquez (cont.)

[e-farmacos@usa.healthnet.org]

E-farmacos: Brasil notifica amenazas a German Velasquez (cdont.)
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[Reproducimos el mensaje aparecido en la lista de discusion 'e-drug',
con la informacion de la United Nations Foundation sobre las amenazas
recibidas por German Velasquez. La noticia puede consultarse
directamente en la pagina web:
http://www.unfoundation.org/unwire/2001/07/13/index.asp#16011 , AF.]

"WHO: Staff Member Mysteriously Assaulted, Threatened 

A senior World Health Organization official has been assaulted several
times and has received death threats apparently stemming from his
involvement in a campaign to get pharmaceutical companies to reduce drug
prices for essential life-saving drugs, reports the Brazilian daily O
Globo.

The official, Drug Action Program Coordinator German Velasquez, is a
major critic of the pharmaceutical industry's pricing policies for
essential drugs. Although the WHO is trying to keep the case secret, its
security department is reportedly conducting an investigation. French
police are also investigating. According to official sources who were
first informed of the incidents by Velasquez himself, O Globo reports
that the governments of Brazil, South Africa and Colombia, and two
nongovernmental organizations that have actively advocated for cheaper
access to essential medicines, Oxfam and Medecins Sans Frontieres, have
also been
briefed on the case.  

The incidents began on 26 May when Velasquez, a Colombian doctor, was
assaulted and robbed in Rio de Janeiro on his way to a WHO meeting. He
attributed the attack to the city's high crime rate, until two days
later in Miami, where he was attacked again by two men who not only
referred to the assault in Rio, but also warned
him directly, "Don't mess with the pharmaceutical industry."

Following that incident, Velasquez informed the WHO, but that event was
not the last. At his home near Geneva, he received three more
intimidating telephone calls, one of which included a warning that he
should not attend a World Trade Organization debate on intellectual
property. When he asked who was calling, the caller
referred to Lincoln Road, the street where he was attacked in Miami.

Despite the reluctance of the pharmaceutical industry to comment on the
issue, a source who asked not to be identified said the incident was
"strange" and was uncertain how the industry could benefit from such
action. Phil Bloomer, an Oxfam official who is following the case,
confirmed the WHO had contacted his organization about the incidents and
said they are "taking this episode extremely seriously" Bloomer added,
"We hope the
investigation rapidly reveals the motive and the actors responsible for
the attacks and threats against German."

The WHO and Velasquez himself have refused to comment on the incidents
(Deborah Bernlick, 13 Jul, UN Wire translation).

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