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Chinese NGO That Probed Village AIDS Deaths Evicted -Global Policy Forum- NGOs Chinese NGO That Probed Village AIDS Deaths Evicted
By Cindy Sui
Agence France Presse
July 03, 2002
A pioneering Chinese group that publicised the large numbers of farmers in remote villages dying of AIDS after contracting the disease from selling blood has been evicted from its office, its founder said Wednesday.
The AIDS Action Project, or Aizhi Xingdong in Chinese, received notice from its partner, a private university, that it must vacate its office on campus, Wan Yanhai told AFP.
No reason was given, but the university said it received orders from higher authorities to stop cooperating with the group, according to Wan, who declined to name the university to avoid causing difficulties for it. Wan said that it would now be extremely tough for the group to continue working.
"It will be very difficult for us to apply for funding without being connected to an institution," he warned.
The project's problems began earlier this year after it published on its Internet site two "death lists" -- names of 170 people who died in two villages in central China's Henan province.
Henan is at the heart of a scandal involving farmers contracting HIV and AIDS after selling blood in the late 1980s to mid 1990s to grossly unsanitary government-sanctioned blood collectors. Wan has estimated there could be two million people in Henan alone who contracted the HIV virus from selling blood. Previous independent estimates have put the figure at around one million.
Local officials, however, have blocked journalists and independent health workers from going out to the so-called "AIDS villages".
In March, Henan provincial officials came to Beijing to complain about the AIDS Action Project to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of State Security and Public Security Bureau, Wan said.
"They said we were a reactionary organization. Some of our staff were questioned by police," he said.
"We published the death list because the local government didn't admit they had a problem with AIDS."
The group also reported on the Henan AIDS crisis on domestic and international websites. Wan said he suspected the crackdown against his group was also linked to its frank criticisms of the government's slow response to the rapid spread of AIDS. He additionally said it could also be connected to a scathing United Nations report released in Beijing last week criticising China for insufficient action to head off a major AIDS epidemic in the country. His group was told to leave four days after the report came out.
"I think the reason is because they are uncomfortable with the UN report," Wan said.
Wan, a former researcher on AIDS for the health ministry, founded the group nine years ago after he was dismissed for speaking out about health issues. The NGO is known among the international AIDS prevention community and has received funding from overseas groups such as the Elisabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation.
Last year, when China prevented AIDS activist Gao Yaojie from going to the United States to receive the Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights, Wan was selected to accept the award for her. Wan had been working out of his briefcase until five months ago when he set up the partnership with the university, which involved educating students about AIDS.
A health ministry spokesman said he was not aware of Wan's group, but said the law requires all organizations to be registered. Wan said that until recently his group did not have the 100,000 yuan (12,000 US dollars) required to do this. But even with money, he said, it was difficult for NGOs to operate.
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