20 Mar: The Danger of Arms and Ammunition Stockpiles: Proper management of State stockpiles of arms and ammunition is the responsibility of the government. The stark reality, however, is that many stockpiles throughout Africa are decaying rapidly and many governments choose to ignore the situation.
Mounting evidence suggests that the uniformed services are in many ways at the coalface of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, in the sense that they are vulnerable to both contracting HIV/AIDS and serving as agents for its transmission. A number of characteristics have been identified as making military personnel particularly susceptible to infection. Key amongst these are:
Demographics: Most military personnel are relatively youthful, with many militaries comprised predominantly of young, single men. Free from family and marital ties, younger personnel may have more partners than their older, married counterparts.
Deployment patterns: Military personnel may be posted away from home, where loneliness, boredom and, sometimes, peer pressure may encourage casual or commercial sex. They are also often deployed in socially disrupted settings, where opportunities for casual and commercial sex abound.
Work environment: Military personnel also often operate in a high-tension environment, where the need to unwind may not only encourage risky sexual behaviour, but also the use of alcohol and drugs. A culture of machismo, aggression and risk taking in many militaries may also encourage such behaviour.
Status and power: With a steady income, personnel are often better off than other people in the communities in which they live and work. In some settings they may also wield considerable power over others. Status and money mean that military personnel attract opportunities for sex, as they are seen as ‘a good catch’ or are able to pay for sex.
Occupational exposure: Personnel may also be exposed to infected bodily fluids during the course of their duties.
Reliable estimates of HIV/AIDS prevalence within African militaries are hard to come by. Probable extreme estimates, published by UNAIDS, suggest that prevalence amongst military personnel may be between two and five times that of the general population. The South African military have, on the other hand, indicated that prevalence rates in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is only slightly higher than those found within the general South African populace. Even if prevalence is only on a par with that of the general population, country estimates put average adult prevalence at approximately 20% in the SADC region, compared to average prevalence rates of less than 10% elsewhere.
Much has been written on the relationship and impact of HIV/AIDS on African armed forces. In early 2001 the UN Secretary General wrote that: “There is now broad acknowledgement that AIDS has become a global development crisis, potentially affecting national security in some countries. Armed conflict and associated population movements provide fertile ground for the spread of AIDS, while the epidemic itself can be seen as a risk factor in the breakdown of social cohesion and in social and political instability, in addition to a threat to security forces.” (1). While the debate has been marked by interesting and useful hypotheses and conjectures, there is little empirical data. The field of HIV/AIDS epidemiology in developing countries, limited by poor data sets at the best of times, is further hindered by the difficulties of obtaining reliable data in situations of conflict and concerns regarding national security.
Reliable estimates of HIV/AIDS prevalence within Southern African militaries are hard to come by and the implications for the military is at present almost entirely speculative. It is thus extremely important that effective, comprehensive, forward thinking responses be put in place to mitigate the possible effects of the epidemic on the military.
To this end, the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) has embarked on research into the impact of HIV/AIDS on the armed forces of African, as well as developing measures to strengthen the military’s response to the epidemic in South Africa and the region. The MILAIDS project has investigated the impact of HIV/AIDS on selected military forces in Southern Africa with the aim of developing policy options for the mitigation of this impact on the armed forces of the region. The project has also recently completed a scenario-based workshop on confronting the implications of HIV/AIDS in peacekeeping missions in Africa by 2015.
(1) Report of the Secretary-General, Review of the problem of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in all its aspects, 55th session of the UN General Assembly, p 8, New York, NY.
