a256  1748  02 Nov 87
AM-AIDS-Soviet,0417
US Welcomes Soviet Disavowal on AIDS Reports
By GEORGE GEDDA
Associated Press Writer
    WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department welcomed on Monday what it
described as a Soviet disavowal of earlier charges in the
Soviet-sponsored press that the AIDS virus was artificially
cultivated at secret U.S. military bases.
    Department spokesman Charles Redman noted that the disavowal was
contained in the Soviet government newspaper Izvestia last Friday.
    In the article, two Soviet scientists publicly distanced the
U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences from the claims about U.S.
responsibility for acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
    The two scientists, Roal'd Sagdeyev and Vitaliy Gol'danskiy, said
they had protested the appearance in the Soviet media of articles
that repeated those claims.
    The timing of the article by the scientists appeared to suggest that
it was written in response to a meeting on Oct. 23 when Secretary of
State George P. Shultz complained to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev
about Soviet discussion of the AIDS issue.
    Shultz told Gorbachev that Moscow had been peddling ''bum dope'' on
the subject.
    ''The United States welcomes this authoritative Soviet disavowal of
the false charges that the U.S. is responsible for the creation of
the AIDS virus,'' Redman said.
    ''We note in particular that this disavowal appeared in the official
Soviet press.''
    In July, the State Department alleged that Soviet-sponsored articles
saying the AIDS virus was created in Pentagon experiments appeared
this summer in newspapers in Kenya, Peru, Sudan, Nigeria, Senegal and
Mexico.
    The department also said then that the articles were still appearing
in Russian outlets and may be part of an effort to deflect domestic
fears about the Soviet Union's own AIDS cases.
    Articles appearing in the Soviet press alleged that the experiments
were carried out at Fort Detrick, Md., for the purpose of developing
a new biological weapon.
    Redman said Monday that the media allegations against the United
States inhibited proposals for U.S.-Soviet cooperation in combating
AIDS, a fatal disease that destroys the body's ability to fight
infections.
    ''We'll continue to monitor the Soviet media to ascertain that, in
fact, the disinformation campaign has ceased,'' the spokesman said.
    The article appeared four days after the U.N. General Assembly
passed a resolution uniting all countries in a concerted effort to
prevent and control AIDS.
    The resolution, co-sponsored by the United States and the Soviet
Union, recognized one or more naturally occurring retroviruses of
undetermined origin as the causes of the syndrome.
    
 
AP-NY-11-02-87 2034EST
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