[Pharm-policy] Unfoundation: WHO: Staff Member Mysteriously Assaulted, Threatened

[love@cptech.org]

Thanks to Susan for providing this pointer


 http://www.unfoundation.org/unwire/2001/07/13/index.asp#16011


2 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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