MONTREAL, Sept 14 (AFP) - The wife of a Chinese AIDS activist has had no news of her husband since she believes he was detained three weeks ago, she said at a press conference here Friday.

"Last time I've talked to him was on August 23. I have not received any official world from the Chinese government if my husband is in their custody but I believe this to be the case. This is the 21st day that he is missing," Su Zhaosheng said in Montreal where she received on behalf of her husband, Dr. Wan Yahnai, a prize for his activist from the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and Human Rights Watch.

"The crime that Wan Yahnai committed is that of having loved so deeply his country and his people that he did everything to inform them about the HIV/AIDS epidemic," said Joanne Csete, of the HIV/AIDS and human rights program of Human Rights Watch.

She called his detention "scandalous and unjust."

Wan was a health official in Beijing until 1994, when he was fired for his support of gays and lesbians as well as his information campaign about the risks of AIDS.

He was apparently arrested for posting on the Internet a confidential government report detailing HIV-contaminated blood in Henan province.

Last week, Peking officially recognized that at least a million Chinese are ill with AIDS or carry HIV, the virus which causes AIDS, citing fears of a vast epidemic.

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