Xinjiang Aids NGO calls for end to 'state of terror' after closure
An Aids concern group in Xinjiang was raided and closed down by the autonomous region's government on Wednesday.
Chang Kun , 21, a university student and project co-ordinator for the Xinjiang Snow Lotus Aids Project for Education and Research, said he had been under police scrutiny for weeks. He added that his recent involvement in helping expelled hepatitis-B-infected school students had led to the clampdown, according to an online journal entry he wrote before fleeing the provincial capital, Urumqi .
Mr Chang left the northwestern capital on Wednesday night after writing that he had been forced into a 'state of terror' by interrogations and constant threats.
'I am appealing for the withdrawal of the disbanding of our organisation and for an end to the harassment and threats to our organisation's volunteers and my parents,' Mr Chang wrote.
He was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Wan Yanhai , a director of an Aids-related non-government organisation in Beijing who had constant communications with Mr Chang's group said Mr Chang was in Beijing.
On Tuesday, a Xinjiang government bureau that oversees community groups in the region raided Mr Chang's home office and presented him with a legal document that claimed his organisation had violated the law by not registering.
'But many of the 300 Aids concern groups in China are also citizen-initiated organisations without registration. This is the first time an Aids NGO has been formally shut down and this has put us under enormous pressure,' Mr Wan said.
Since last November, Mr Chang's group had been promoting education on hepatitis B, calling for an end to discrimination against carriers of the disease.
Last month, the group appealed for help for 19 high school students expelled after testing positive for hepatitis B. Seven of the students are represented by a lawyer and are suing Urumqi's education bureau.
