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Ugandan Police arrested a group of gay activists demanding the right to HIV/AIDS treatment at an international AIDS conference in Kampala on Wednesday, according to Monsters and Critics.

Hundreds of activists disrupted the morning plenary session of the conference, calling for rights, recognition and access to services and funds extended to groups involved in the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS. 

‘We came to demonstrate because there is a need to include gay Ugandans in HIV programmes,’ the group’s leader, Julian Onziema, 28, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa shortly before he was arrested.

The number of Ugandan homosexuals is not known, but membership of gay groups is believed to be increasing as activists step up their attempts to secure gay rights. Uganda does not recognize gay rights and people found guilty of homosexual acts can be sentenced to life imprisonment. However, nobody has ever been convicted of the crime.