China frees AIDS activist, four others in custody
Source: Reuters
BEIJING, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Chinese police freed an AIDS activist on Monday after holding him for days and forcing him to scrap a planned conference, but four other people were still in custody, a non-governmental organisation said on its Web site. Chinese authorities are wary of organisations they cannot directly control, such as independent activist groups, and were slow to acknowledge the existence of an epidemic of AIDS, which still carries political and social stigma in China. Wan Yanhai, director of Beijing Aizhixing Institute of Health Education, was released on his fourth day of detention and was forced to postpone the conference "Blood Safety, AIDS and Human Rights" originally scheduled to be held in Beijing from Nov. 25-30, the institute said. No reason was given for Wan's detention or release. The institute called for the release of another activist and three AIDS patients. It was unclear why they were detained. In April, police in China's financial hub Shanghai broke up a news conference by a group of haemophiliacs who say they contracted HIV/AIDS through contaminated blood transfusions.
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