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"Myanmar arrests HIV/AIDS workers"
The
Star (www.thestar.com.my)
(16/08/06)
WASHINGTON: Myanmar's military regime arrested 11 members of a local
HIV/AIDS non-governmental group which wanted to organise its first programme
to help sufferers of the disease, a dissident group said on Monday.
The members of the informal Friends with Red Ribbon group, aimed at helping
to rehabilitate HIV/AIDS patients, were released on Monday after being held
in a police lockup since their arrest on Friday, said the US Campaign for
Burma.
They were accused of not informing the authorities of their overnight stay
in a Buddhist monastery where they were preparing for a memorial service for
those who had died of HIV/AIDS in Myanmar, it said.
They were freed after the police station they were held in was swamped by
hundreds of supporters, said Aung Din, the policy director for the US
Campaign for Burma in Washington.
Some 31% of prostitutes in Myanmar have HIV, while nearly 38% of injecting
drug users have the virus, UN estimates show. —AFP
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