A Press Release from the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), a South African AIDS advocacy group, says 40 people were injured and ten were treated for gunshot wounds when police opened fire Tuesday on a peaceful demonstration by health activists and people with AIDS. The Press Release states, “The majority of the protesters were women. At no stage was there violence, threat of violence or any form of provocation. No warning to disperse was issued as is required by law. After the assault, as people ran away, the police opened fire with firearms and then used teargas.” TAC says the demonstration, organized by the Chris Hani District and the Eastern Cape TAC office after six months of negotiations with provincial and local health authorities concerning the following issues:
* Access to information on the number of people, tested, counseled and treated was denied by provincial and local authorities along with information on successes and challenges of the treatment program;
* On 29 December 2004, N.P. Klaas of the Eastern Cape Health Department sent a circular to all clinics that read: "No new clients should be admitted on Anti-retroviral (ARV's) until further notice. Continue sending those that are already on treatment to Frontier Hospital."
* Frontier Hospital in Queenstown serves a population of 200 000 people with five feeder clinics in the Lukhanji sub-district: Nomzamo, Philani, Ilinge, Sada and Hewu clinics. It is estimated that 2000 people need treatment but fewer than 200 people are on treatment. Fewer than 10 people have been put on treatment this year.
* More people have died waiting for treatment than people on treatment. TAC had received information that at Nomzamo Clinic 52 people are on treatment but that three people have died because of starting too late. Further 51 people living with HIV/AIDS died waiting while on the waiting list for treatment. There are currently 142 people on the waiting list.
* Since April 2005, the TAC District office has tried to negotiate and get access to information and treatment the local management has referred us to the provincial management.
* No urgency or accountability is shown in dealing with people who are dying.
* For the lack of urgency and accountability the MEC for Health Dr. Bevan Goqwana and the national Health Minister Manto Tshabalala Msimang must take responsibility. This includes responsibility for mismanagement and unnecessary deaths. We urge the Premier of the Eastern Cape, Ms Nosimo Balindlela to intervene and meet urgently with TAC to ensure that lives are saved through the following:
* Making sure that the implementation of the treatment plan and the roll-out of ARV therapy proceeds with urgency across the province because her MEC for Health has failed the people of the Eastern Cape;
* Human resources for the health care system are prioritized;
* Treatment literacy and community mobilization; and
* The CEO of the Frontier Hospital and the SAPS face justice for invoking violence against peaceful demonstrators including people living with HIV/AIDS.
Police fired what they say were rubber bullets into the crowd of more than 1500 who were marching on Frontier Hospital, in Queenstown. Witnesses said the police fired without warning and none of the protestors was arrested or charged with any crime.
"The police started beating people...then shooting at them," TAC deputy chairperson Sipho Mthati told the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). "It really was excessive force - it's not like they were burning tires or throwing stones, it was a peaceful protest in a hospital."
Mziwethu Faku, one of the organizers of the demonstration, quoted in AIDSmap News “We were expressing our anger in a peaceful, dignified and assertive manner. We will continue to use peaceful mass mobilization but we urge the government to act with speed and compassion.”
TAC spokesperson Sikhumbule Hambani told the Dispatch police were called after protesters had entered the outpatients section to look for the hospital's anti-retroviral treatment team (ARV) coordinator who had declined to speak to them.
Provincial Health Department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said hospital authorities reported the protesters had "blocked a passage and patients did not have lunch".
Superintendent of Police Gcinikhaya Taleni claimed police had been called to disperse the "crowd blocking services after handing over a memorandum". "They used minimum force, rubber bullets and smoke grenades, to disperse the crowd. There were no injuries."
Human Rights Watch called on the government of South Africa to investigate the incident. “It’s a shocking irony that people demonstrating for essential medicines should be met with rubber bullets and teargas,” said Jonathan Cohen, researcher with Human Rights Watch’s HIV/AIDS Program. “South Africa should be easing the suffering of people with AIDS, not violently dispersing peaceful demonstrations.” Cohen said that there is no indication that the actions by the South African police met international standards for the appropriate use of force.
The UN’s Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) declared the police action totally unacceptable. “UNAIDS has long supported and will continue to support the freedom of assembly and association of people living with AIDS,” it said in a statement issued in Geneva. “It is imperative for people living with HIV to be able to openly share information about the disease, to learn about options for treatment and to advocate for better care – including access to life-saving treatment,” it added. “UNAIDS calls on leaders across the globe to ensure that people living with HIV are not deprived of these rights.”
According to 365 Gay in November 2003 the government committed to providing 53,000 patients with free antiretroviral treatment for HIV/AIDS by March 2004. Even by March 2005, only about half that number was receiving treatment, according to the TAC.
A government report released on Monday says more than 6.5 million of South Africa's 47 million people could be infected with HIV, a sharp increase from previous estimates. Prevalence increased among all age groups between the two years, but was highest in women aged between 25 and 29 - nearly 40 per cent of who tested HIV-positive.
TAC says that only ten people have begun treatment this year at the Frontier Hospital in Queenstown, the site of Tuesday’s demonstration and the only clinic allowed to prescribe antiretrovirals in the entire province since the beginning of this year. TAC alleges that at least 51 people on the waiting list for treatment have died already, and that three patients who have begun treatment subsequently died because they had started ARVs too late. TAC estimates that more than 2000 people in the catchment area of Frontiers Hospital need treatment already, but only 200 are getting medication.
TAC in now organizing for a mass demonstration in Queenstown, South Africa on July 26. TAC is asking all civil society organizations and individuals to join us in the protest against unnecessary HIV deaths, for treatment and against police brutality. Sources: 365 Gay (UK), Canadian Press, AIDSmap, Dispatch (South Africa), UN News Center, Treatment Action Campaign
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