Wife pleads out of 'despair and hope' for Aids activist

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Wife pleads out of 'despair and hope' for Aids activist

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

South China Morning Post

by Vivien Cui

The wife of a mainland Aids activist missing for more than a month has appealed for information about her husband's whereabouts out of "despair and hope".

Hu Jia , 32, has been missing since February 16, while under house arrest and under the surveillance of at least six police officers.

His wife, Zeng Jinyan , 22, said in Beijing yesterday that she had exhausted all official avenues - from police to procurators - to get information about him.

"We hope to tell the world that an Aids activist, a devout Buddhist, a human rights campaigner and an environmentalist has disappeared and we have no way of finding him," Ms Zeng said.

"I am worried about why they refuse to tell me what happened that day, whether they have beaten him up - which has happened in the past - and whether he has been detained in a basement like before, which would be devastating to his already poor health."

Mr Hu has been a regular visitor to Aids-riddled villages in Henan , delivering money and supplies to people afflicted by the disease and children who have been left orphaned by it.

He has also been involved in a series of sensitive human rights activities, including protesting against the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and, in the run-up to his disappearance, helping organise a hunger strike over the central government's prosecution of two civil rights activists.

Several others involved in the nationwide hunger strike campaign have been detained in the past month.

Ms Zeng said her husband's disappearance was unusual because no authorities had hinted they would take him away. She said police rejected her attempt to file a missing person's report.

Ms Zeng, who is also an Aids activist and married Mr Hu in January, said she had been reluctant to take the case to the media because she was worried that would have a negative impact on the children she was helping.

"But I have exhausted all methods and no longer have a choice," she said. "I am just a 22-year-old woman. The despair drowns me so often when I am waiting for my husband at home and all contact with the world has been cut off."

Wan Yanhai , founder of Aizhi Action, of which Mr Hu is a director, said the activist's disappearance had driven him "crazy with anxiety" every day.

"This is the longest time he has ever disappeared. We have been fearing the worst - that his life has been seriously put in danger," Mr Wan said.