South African AIDS Activists to Demonstrate Around the World

The AIDS lobby group Treatment Action Campaign announced that protesters will demonstrate outside of South African diplomatic missions worldwide Thursday to demand that the government supply antiretroviral drugs to AIDS patients. In London, they will place 600 pairs of shoes outside South Africa's embassy to symbolize the number of people who die of AIDS-related illnesses each day in South Africa, TAC said. Similar shoe protests will be held in Los Angeles, the District of Columbia and Milan. In the Netherlands, marchers will participate in a die-in, and in Japan 600 paper cranes -- a symbol of hope and longevity -- will be delivered to the embassy in Tokyo. TAC said "solidarity actions" were also planned in other European countries, Canada, Venezuela, the Caribbean, Namibia, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Uganda. TAC's plans in South Africa include demonstrations at the Department of Labor's offices in Cape Town and the Department of Health in Pretoria.

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