Aids activists call on Henan to release petitioners

Rights groups and Aids activists have appealed to Henan's provincial government for the release of at least four people with HIV/Aids who were detained during a protest by some 300 people affected by the disease in front of the government compound on Monday.

Five petitioners and a cinematographer shooting a documentary about people with HIV/Aids were taken into police custody after the petitioners unfurled a banner appealing to Premier Li Keqiang for help and calling for the province to abide by central government policy and provide funds to help children affected by the disease.

Tens of thousands of farmers and their families contracted HIV while selling blood at government blood-donation centres in the central province in the early and mid-1990s when Li was Henan's governor.

Although Li was not involved in the programme, officials cracked down hard on protests and media reports in a bid to cover up the massive outbreak.

Duan Qingyun , a 25-year-old Aids patient from rural Shangqiu , said he contracted the HIV virus via a blood transfusion when he was about seven and became a full-blown Aids patient several years ago. He can no longer work and makes a living by renting a small piece of land.

"They beat us up even though many of us are actually patients dying of the virus," he said.

Duan was among the six people detained on Monday. He said the petitioners shouted at the entrance of the provincial government compound in Zhengzhou for officials to come out and heed their grievances.