Families of AIDS children in Libya observe hunger strike
Libya, Politics, 5/20/2005

Scores of citizens and families of children who were affected by the AIDS virus organized on Thursday in Benghazi, Libya, an open food strike in protest of what they called the continues series of the country's silence towards the "AIDS massacre" which killed scores of children, in a step expected to greatly embarrass the Libyan authorities.

The strike came three weeks after the meeting for the representatives of the families of the victims with government's officials and the secretariat of the general people's committee in which they demanded full support to them and ensure health care to their children. They warned that if their demands are not met, they will start food strike.

In a statement, the families of the victims deplored the silence of the state towards their case and they indicated they had decided to start the strike because the Libyan authorities had not, since the end of the meeting to the present time, taken measures to halt the continued suffering their children face.

The striking citizens who gathered inside the headquarters of the AIDS's affected children committee in Benghazi indicated that things became worse after the death of one of the affected children. They also greatly condemned the practices of the general people's committee policies after its decision to delegate 18 children for medical treatment abroad but without escorts to take care of them.

Worthy mentioning that the number of the victims of what is called the "AIDS case" exceeds 400, 5 of them have so far died, the last of them was child Muhammad Abdul Hadi Arka ( 7 year old) who died two weeks ago in one of the Italian hospital affiliates to the Vatican, after the Libyan authorities refused to provide help to him and to his father. This obliged the father to head for the Italian church which paid all treatment costs until the death of the child, according to a statement by the gathering parents.

A Libyan court had found guilty the five Bulgarian women nurses and one Palestinian doctor over disseminating AIDS /HIV deliberately in a children hospital in Benghazi. The six persons who were detained in Libya in 1999.

Previous Stories:
  Europe condemns execution sentences in the AIDS case in Libya: Six Bulgarians, one Palestinian   (5/7/2004)
  Libya - Tunisia health cooperation agreement   (8/29/2002)
  Trial for those convicted in transmitting AIDS in Libyan children   (5/15/2001)

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