BEIJING, Dec 24 (AFP) - Thugs hired by government officials in central China's Henan province on Wednesday beat more than 10 AIDS patients who protested against the assault of another AIDS sufferer, farmers said.
The victims were among more than 20 people who had demanded the Shangcai county urban management department pay the medical expenses of a farmer beaten by the department's employees, several farmers told AFP.
"They refused to pay one penny," said one of two people hospitalized.
"Seven to eight people beat us. They hit us several dozen times," said the farmer who requested anonymity. "I have several bruises on my leg and head."
The other person hospitalized received six stitches to his head, he said, adding that both of them were HIV positive.
Officials had Monday shoved a man to the ground, causing injuries to his head, when he refused to pay a monthly fee for transporting people for a living on his three-wheeled motorcycle. They confiscated his vehicle.
After the man was beaten, several AIDS sufferers learned about his plight and spent the past two days outside the urban management department's office, demanding officials pay the man's 1,000 yuan (120 US dollars) medical bill.
Some of them were also motorcycle drivers and wanted the government to exempt or reduce the fee, which farmers said was around 40 yuan per month. The drivers make 10 to 20 yuan a day.
Many HIV/AIDS patients in the AIDS-stricken county drive the motorcycles, because it is one of the few jobs they have the strength to do.
County officals denied knowledge of the incident when contacted Wednesday.
Shangcai is one of China's areas worst-hit by the AIDS epidemic.
It was also the county visited by Chinese Vice Premier and Health Minister Wu Yi last week in the first visit to an "AIDS village" by a top official of the Chinese leadership.
Wu said the central government was committed to taking care of the HIV/AIDS-infected farmers.
While she threatened to punish anyone responsible for covering up AIDS cases, she also urged local officials to pay close attention to the problems caused by people with AIDS, "in order to maintain social stability," the Xinhua news agency said.
The province is one of several in central China where villages have high rates of HIV infection. Farmers were infected in the 1980s by tainted equipment while selling their blood in government-approved programmes.
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