AIDS conference pays tribute to Malaysia Airlines victims

“Tonight, for the next minute, let our silence represent our sadness, our anger, and our solidarity,” the International Aids Society president, Françoise Barre-Sinoussi, said, officially opening the Aids 2014 symposium in Melbourne on Sunday night.

She was one of several high-profile delegates to deliver powerful speeches in tribute to the six conference-bound researchers and advocates killed when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine.

Delegates from the organisations representing those killed gathered behind her on stage as silence filled the room of 12,000 people attending the opening ceremony.

Missing from among them were the former International Aids Society president and professor of medicine Joep Lange; his partner, the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development public health official Jacqueline van Tongeren; the HIV lobbyists Pim de Kuijer and Martine de Schutter; the director of support at the Female Health Company, Lucie van Mens; and the World Health Organisation media coordinator Glenn Thomas.

All were killed when MH17 was shot down.

They were travelling because of their dedication to bring an end to Aids, Barre-Sinoussi said, vowing to honour their commitment “and keep them in our hearts over the next week”.

A French virologist who won a Nobel prize for her fundamental work in discovering HIV, Barre-Sinoussi told conference delegates that she wished the conference were opening in happier circumstances.

“The extent of the loss of our colleagues and friends is still hard for me to comprehend or express,” she said.

“We grieve alongside all of those throughout the world who have lost friends and family in this senseless tragedy. But we strongly believe that all of us being here for the next week to discuss to debate, and to learn is indeed what our colleagues who are no longer with us would have wanted. We dedicate Aids 2014 to them.”