Rights groups pan Cambodia AIDS 'colony'

United Press International

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, July 28 (UPI) -- Cambodia's moves to relocate families with AIDS and the HIV virus to a ramshackle "colony" is inhumane, human rights groups say.

The groups say 20 families were forced last week to move from Phnom Penh to a collection of makeshift metal sheds at Tuol Sambo on the outskirts of the city that lack running water, further stigmatizing the victims, CNN reported Tuesday.

"By bundling people living with HIV together into second-rate housing, far from medical facilities, support services and jobs, the government has created a de facto AIDS colony," Shiba Phurailatpam of the Asia-Pacific Network of People Living With HIV told the U.S. broadcaster.

"We are deeply disturbed by the Cambodian authorities' creation of a de facto AIDS colony at Tuol Sambo," Human Right Watch wrote in a letter to Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen. "Tuol Sambo is far away from the jobs, medical facilities and support services that had been available to residents in the city."

CNN said HRW's letter was signed by more than 100 global HIV/AIDS and social justice organizations.

Posted in: Khmer News