Civic groups are questioning whether the World Health Organisation can be trusted to protect the health of Thais, following claims that the global health body demoted its country representative for Thailand under political pressure from the United States.

Some 14 civil society groups yesterday released an open letter calling for an explanation. They cited a report by Asia Times Online, which said Dr William Aldis was transferred from Thailand for public comments that a free-trade agreement with the US could curtail access to life-saving medicines.

"How can the WHO, as a global agency to protect public health, provide fair protection to all if intervention is allowed to take place? We condemn such intervention," said the open letter, released yesterday.

The report by Asia Times Online said WHO country representative Dr William Aldis was transferred just 16 months into his term because Washington was unhappy with his warning that the Thai government should think carefully before exchanging its right to access cheap medicines for an FTA with the US.

Jiraporn Limpananont, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Pharmacy and member of the Drug Study Group, one of the 14 groups that signed the letter, demanded the WHO explain reasons for the "controversial decision".

"If the WHO insists that the US has nothing to do with the removal, then it has to disclose why Dr Aldis was transferred before his term was completed," she said in a telephone interview.

Aldis had been in the country representative for Thailand for 16 months. Such postings are usually four years or longer.

According to Asia Times Online, the removal of Aldis was made by the WHO's late director-general Lee Jong-wook, on March 24, one day after a US ambassador to the UN in Geneva paid Lee a private visit to express displeasure with Aldis' comments in a Thai newspaper. Aldis is now in a research position at a WHO regional office in New Delhi.

Asia Times Online said Lee characterised the transfer to a position with less authority as a "promotion".

On January 9, while the sixth round of FTA negotiations between Thailand and the US were taking place in Chiang Mai, Aldis wrote an opinion piece for the Bangkok Post expressing concern over tighter legislation for intellectual property rights. If Thailand signed the FTA with a condition to tighten such legislation - as required by the US - it would risk the lives of hundreds of thousands of Thai citizens living with HIV/Aids and likely bankrupt the Bt30 health scheme, he warned.

FTA Watch representative Kannikar Kijtiwatchakul feared a chilling effect. WHO officials may no longer dare to express concerns about policies that threaten public health, she said. "Dr Aldis was demoted for doing his job as a member of a neutral global body. His removal will damage public-health protection not only in Thailand but in other developing countries that have less power."

Pennapa Hongthong

The Nation