MBABANE, SWAZILAND - Swaziland and its king are throwing a joint 40th birthday bash this weekend, but the mood is far from celebratory in this small southern African land of paupers and princes, mud huts and palaces.

The government calls it the 40-40 festivities, marking King Mswati III's birthday and the anniversary of Swaziland's independence from Britain. But the number 40 has resonance elsewhere -- unemployment, 40 percent; HIV rates, nearly 40 percent among adults.

"What is it we are celebrating?" demanded Philile Mlotshwa. "Is it the world's highest AIDS rate? The collapse of the health and education system? What are we showing the world that we have achieved?"

Her advocacy group rallied hundreds of HIV-positive women last month to demonstrate against the cost of the celebrations, officially put at $2.5 million though widely thought to be five times higher.

Although Africa's last absolute monarch is widely revered among his 1 million subjects, there is particular public anger that about eight of his 13 wives flew to Dubai for a birthday party shopping spree.

"We are dying while they are flying," was the refrain at the demonstration.

The national stadium has been refurbished for the birthday festivities, which will feature military bands, traditional singing, dancing and drumming, a royal garden party and state banquet for VIPs, who are expected to include President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe among African heads of state.

The public seems to be particularly angered by the fleet of luxury cars bought by the government to chauffeur the birthday guests.

About 5,000 trade union members took to the streets Wednesday to protest against the expenditure by a country where 70 percent live below the poverty line and one in five depends on international food aid.

Life expectancy has fallen nearly by half since 1998 because of the AIDS epidemic and is now less than 31 years, according to the most recent U.N. figures.

A smaller demonstration was held Thursday.

The government in Mbabane, the capital, sees the criticism as "a political ploy to tarnish the image of the country during the upcoming 40-40 celebrations," the prime minister's office said in a full page newspaper ad Thursday.

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