A government official in central China says villagers who allegedly attacked a Belgian television crew last year have apologized for the incident.
A Flemish-language crew headed by Tom Van de Weghe said reporters were attacked in a Henan province village while interviewing HIV/AIDS patients ahead of World AIDS Day (December first). The village has a large number of infected people blamed largely on unhealthy practices, which helped spread the virus in the 1990s.
A Henan government official (Wang Yuejin) told reporters Friday that villagers wrote a letter to the Belgian crew to explain the misunderstanding and to apologize. He said Henan officials were not involved.
On Thursday, Belgian public broadcaster VRT said it had received a letter of apology from five Henan officials. The broadcaster said the officials also sent 200 dollars in compensation for the attack.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.