Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai â who on Friday became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize â on Saturday repeated her previous claims that HIV was âcreated by a scientist for biological warfare,â reports. In August, Kenyaâs quoted Maathai as saying that HIV/AIDS was created by scientists âfor the purpose of mass extermination,â according to. âWe know that the developed nations are using biological warfare, leaving guns to primitive people. They have the resources to do this,â the quoted Maathai as saying during a workshop on Aug. 30 in the central Kenyan town of Nyeri, according to. âAIDS is not a curse from God to Africans or the black people. It is a tool to control them designed by some evil-minded scientists, but we may not know who particularly did,â she added, according to the, reports (, 10/9) Saturday, Maathai repeated her belief that HIV was deliberately âdevised to destroy black people,â according to. She added that her comments published in the were âintended to promote an inquiring attitudeâ toward HIV/AIDS among Africans and âcombat the fatalistic notion that it was a curse from God,â reports. âWould you solve the problem if you believed it was a curse from God?â Maathai asked, adding that she was âencouraging people to ask questions.â Although Maathai said she never indicated that a specific region or nation was responsible for creating HIV/AIDS, she is âsuspiciousâ about the âsecrecy surrounding the origin of the virus,â according to. âSome people say it came from the monkeys, and I doubt it. ⊠But I say it cannot be that only black people are cursed because we are dying more than any other people on this planet, and thatâs a factâ (Kaninaâ 10/9).
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Although the United States âcongratulatedâ Maathai on Friday for winning the Nobel Prize, officials also âtempered [their] praiseâ about her claims that HIV/AIDS was created as a biological weapon, according to South Africaâs. âSheâs had many long years of environmental activism,â Department of State spokesperson Richard Boucher said, adding, âWeâre delighted to see that sheâs the first African woman to have been selected for this unique honor.â However, an unnamed State Department senior official said that the department âvehementlyâ objected to Maathaiâs comments concerning the origin of HIV, the reports. âShe said HIV/AIDS was invented as a bioweapon in some laboratory in the West,â the official said, adding, âWe donât agree with thatâ (, 10/9).