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Our April newsletter includes many important events in the struggle to end the persecution of Falun Gong.
Following the news of the harvesting of organs in China, we report on the Council of Europe's motion to request a hearing on the case and to demand that the Chinese government allows an independent investigation into the matter.
Other investigations have already started around the world amid eye-witness reports from various medical sources which reveal the true horror of the situation.
Editor
Council of Europe Motion Asks for a Hearing on the Organ-Harvesting Case
The second steering committee meeting of the Council of Europe in 2006 was held in Strasbourg from April 10th to 13th. 11 representatives of the COE raised a motion to ask for a hearing on the case which was recently exposed to the public regarding the CCP crimes of organ-harvesting from live Falun Gong practitioners, and also demand that the Chinese government open all labour camps to international delegations to conduct independent investigations.
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The COE board meeting
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This motion entitled "Need for a public hearing on organ harvesting in China" and document ID is #10904.
Lately many reports about organ harvesting in communist China have been reaching Europe. It was mentioned in the motion that, according to a Reuter's report, the United Nations' torture investigator said that thousands of Falun Gong followers were being held in a Chinese concentration camp, and some had been killed.
The motion also included the following three requests:
To allow the United Nations and other rights organisations to conduct independent investigations of all its labour camps and other detention facilities where prisoners of conscience are held.
To allow international rights organisations to immediately investigate the conditions of all Falun Gong practitioners and other dissidents held in all labour camps, jails and detention centres.
To allow international organisations to investigate all non-voluntary or undocumented removals and sale of organs from the Chinese people.
It was said at the end of the motion that, "All these considerations show that there is a need for a public hearing on the organ harvesting in China."
This motion was drafted by the Swedish Parliamentarian, Mr. Lindblad, and jointly signed by eleven parliamentarians from Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Estonia and Greece.
Canadian Catholic News: MPs call for organ harvesting investigation
Reports say Chinese take body parts from live prisoners
MPs Rob Anders, left, and Keith Martin were among Parliamentarians calling for an investigation into the alleged harvesting of organs from live Chinese prisoners. (Photos by Deborah Gyapong)
OTTAWA: Members of Parliament from all the major parties want Canada to investigate allegations the Chinese Communist Party is harvesting organs from live prisoners.
When Parliament opened April 3, about 200 people, most of them practitioners of Falun Gong, demonstrated on the lawn to raise awareness of eyewitness accounts of these abuses. They were joined by several MPs who called for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government to investigate.
Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is based on qigong, "the practice of refining the body and mind through special exercises and meditation," according to the organization's web site.
Among the MPs present were Bloc Quebecois MP Maria Mourani, Liberals Borys Wrzesnewskyj and Larry Bagnell, NDP MP Peter Julian and Conservative Bruce Stanton.
On April 4, Falun Dafa Association of Canada spokeswoman Lucy Zhou told an Ottawa news conference about three eyewitness accounts from China about "secret concentration camp-like facilities that are staffed by surgeons and equipped with crematoriums to dispose of corpses and other evidence."
Zhou said one of the sources, a medical doctor who served in the Shenyang military zone, said about 36 concentration camps hold Falun Gong practitioners and "other prisoners of conscience." Zhou, however, did not know how many of those prisoners might be Christian.
Amnesty International is in the process of doing its own investigation, according to spokeswoman Beth Berton-Hunter.
MPs who have been following the plight of Falun Gong in China believe the allegations are credible.
"I think China has a proven track record as the worst human rights violator in the world," Conservative MP Rob Anders told CCN April 6.
"They are certainly willing to kill, torture and mutilate people for opposition to their regime. The nuance between torturing and killing people and harvesting their organs isn't very much."
Anders said he has seen evidence of torture that demonstrates to him the Chinese "don't have much respect for the sanctity of life."
Liberal MP Dr. Keith Martin told CCN that while he does not know to what extent organ harvesting is taking place, he is not surprised by the allegations.
"The Chinese government commits all manner of atrocities against members of Falun Gong," he said. "The Chinese government has mobile execution groups, and they have harvested organs of people on death row."
The government-sponsored web site for the China International Transplantation Network Assistance Centre boasts "it may only take one week to find out the suitable donor," a rate she said is not matched in any developed country where organs are donated.
The centre's web site ( http://en.zoukiishoku.com ) offers organ transplants to an international clientele.
"There are more than 35,000 kidney transplant operations that have been done in public hospitals in 29 cities, provinces and municipalities in China, and the number of kidney transplant operations is at least 5,000 every year all over the country," the site claims.
"So many transplantation operations are owing to the support of the Chinese government."
The site acknowledges that in many areas China's health care is not as advanced as in developed countries, but claims: "in the area of organ transplantation, the mode of the operation is the same all over the world, and the level of medical technology in China is the same as that of a developed county."
Radio France Internationale (RFI): The World Health Organisation Conducts an Investigation into the Accusation that Falun Gong Practitioners' Organs were Removed While they were Still Alive
"People and society," a Chinese programme by Radio France International broadcast to China, in the evening of the 23rd of April, broadcast the interview with the World Health Organisation (WHO) Clinical Procedure Coordinator Mr. Noel. He discussed the organ transplant issue in China. The following are the excerpts:
Reporter: In the last episode of "People and Society" we introduced the issue of overseas media's reports about China selling the organs of prisoners on the death roll. We also asked a Chinese reporter under the pseudonym of Jin Zhong to talk about his investigation of the traditional and western Chinese thrombus hospital in Sujiatun, Shenyang. We contacted the World Health Organisation many times and hoped to understand its view about China's organ transplant situation. However, Mr. Noel, who is in charge of the work of organ transplants, could not accept the interview with us because he was on a business trip. In today's episode, we will broadcast an interview with WHO Clinical Procedure Coordinator Mr. Noel.
Reporter: According to Le Figaro, WHO said that foreigners can go to China to buy organs, especially from those who are on the death roll? Can you confirm the statement?
Noel: Everybody knew that. Everybody can see from the website of the agents on the internet. Those websites indeed regarded organ transplant in China as an attraction. This is why the people say "organ transplant tourism".
Reporter: Some situations are not clear yet. While China's Vice-minister of Public Health Huang Jiehfu admitted that 90% of the organs came from prisoners on the death roll, the spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health Mr. Mao claimed that using the organs of prisoners on the death roll was a particular phenomenon. How do you think?
Reporter: Falun Gong which is forbidden by the CCP made the accusation that thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were detained in China and their organs were removed. A lot of them were still alive when their organs were taken out. Does the World Health Organisation plan to conduct an investigation into the charge? Or it will request Beijing to investigate?
Noel: The accusation was very serious, verification was in progress.
Reporter: Was the verification by the World Health Organisation?
Noel: Including the verification by the WHO.
Epoch Times: Australian Surgeons Condemn "Horrific" Organ Trade
Australian transplant surgeons have confirmed that organs from executed prisoners are used for transplants in China and have publicly condemned the practice.
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Prison inmates are given instructions from a police officer. Leading Australian transplant surgeons have condemned the practice of harvesting organs from executed prisoners.
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Several surgeons from the heart, lung, liver and kidney transplant units in Brisbane told The Epoch Times, it was common knowledge that there was virtually no waiting list in China because organs came from prisoners on death row.
"The intended recipient is actively matched with the donor while the donor is still alive," one doctor said, adding that the practice "is abhorrent to our way of life."
Spokesperson for The Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ), Professor Peter Macdonald, said their members were unreservedly "against the use of organs and tissues from executed prisoners for the purposes of therapeutic transplantation."
The statement from TSANZ is in line with the British and International Transplantation Societies, who recently issued public statements condemning the Chinese organ trade.
Professor Macdonald, who is joint head of the transplant programme at St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney, said he had no specific knowledge of the practice in China other than what he had been told by colleagues, but that he, and TSANZ members, were united in their opposition because "it is an unethical practice."
Professor Steven Lynch, Director of the Liver Transplant Unit at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, said there was "No doubt that there are huge numbers of executed prisoners being organ donors."
Professor Lynch said it was not until he was a guest lecturer at the Tianjin transplant hospital in China that he fully understood why.
"I asked them what proportion of the donors are executed compared to the brain dead and they said it was illegal to use brain dead donors in China, so virtually all of them are executed prisoners."
While the Chinese communist regime tells Western medical authorities that all executed prisoners have signed consent forms, Professor Lynch said there was never any mention of documentation showing informed consent from the medical staff at Tianjin Hospital.
"It is an ethical problem. When it is run by the state it becomes like 'the ultimate tax.' Once dead, the body is not yours to give but the states to decide."
Professor Lynch said he had given a lot of thought to the issue and felt that the fault lay with the Chinese communist regime rather than the doctors.
"The problems lie in the ethical practices of the Chinese Government rather than the doctors who are working very hard, legally, within the government requirements."
Professor George Javorsky, who runs the heart transplantation unit at Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, also condemned the practice saying it was "horrific" to consider that prisoners of any sort, let alone those who may be there for their spiritual or political beliefs, would be used as donors against their will.
Amnesty International estimates there were 1,770 executions in China last year but add that figures were based on "public reports" and that "official national statistics on the application of the death penalty remain classified" in China.
A report in The Sydney Morning Herald indicated that the Chinese government claims around 20,000 kidney transplants are conducted in China annually.
However these figures pertain to domestic transplants only and do not include operations for foreigners, which implies that there are many more transplants occurring.
Certainly there seems to be no shortage of organs available. The Internet highlights many English language websites touting for foreigners to visit China for organ transplants.
One site for the China International Transplantation Network Assistance Centre starts its spiel with the line "Viscera providers can be found immediately" and claims "it is more safe and reliable here than in other countries, where the organ is not from a living donor."
Mr. Deller, President of the New South Wales Falun Dafa Association, said "Our concern is that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are being kept there as organ banks.
"It is shocking information, but that is what we believe is happening, and really hope that those who are concerned about human rights will expose these things and go into China to investigate."
European Falun Gong Association Holds a Press Conference in the Council of Europe Building
Press Conference |
With assistance from Polish Council Member Tadeusz Wita, the European Falun Gong Association held a press conference inside the building of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on April 12th. At the press conference, the association announced the establishment of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China and openly invited related international organizations, state agencies and the media to form a joint investigation group to go to China to perform a comprehensive investigation of the truth of the persecution of Falun Gong and the secret concentration camps.
Mr. Wita told the reporters at the press conference that he would try his best to push the Council of Europe to pass a resolution to help stop the persecution of Falun Gong. He indicated that this procedure was already under way. Attendees of the conference included representatives from the European Falun Gong Association, members of Coalition to Investigate the Persecution, members of the "World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong," and representatives from the Epoch Times and "Sound of Hope" international radio station.
Background information: The Council of Europe has forty-six member states. It was established on the 5th of May 1949 and headquartered in Strasbourg, France. Its purpose is to promote economic and social progress in Europe; safeguard democracy and human rights; seek solutions to major social issues. The supreme decision-making and executive body of the Council of Europe is the ministerial commission composed of the foreign ministers of the member states. A committee composed by the representative of minister stationed in the Council is in charge of daily affairs. The European Human Rights Court is an organization of the Council of Europe.
International Team Poised to Enter China for "Broad and Rigorous" Investigation of Atrocities against Falun Gong
NEW YORK (Falun Dafa Information Center) - A newly-formed international coalition of organizations announced today that investigators from North America, Europe, and Australia will begin applying for visas today as part of a plan to enter China and conduct a "broad and rigorous" investigation of China's concentration and labour camps.
The coalition also plans to investigate medical facilities throughout China that conduct organ transplants in light of mounting evidence that thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are being killed for their organs there.
Led by the Falun Dafa Association and MingHui website researchers, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China (CIPFG) includes media, non-profit organizations, and legal professionals that have expertise in uncovering details of human rights abuses in China.
"We have very specific and extensive information on labour and concentration camps throughout China," says Coalition spokesperson Dr. Sherry Zhang. "We know where the atrocities are taking place, and in many cases we have detailed eyewitness accounts."
"If the Chinese regime is serious about allowing investigation of these matters, it must open the doors to all transplant hospitals, concentration camps, and labour camps, and do so immediately," says Zhang. "Anything short of that would indicate, without a doubt, a cover-up."
The MingHui website receives daily over 500 communications from throughout China detailing human rights abuses against Falun Gong practitioners. This is more than any other organization in the world. Since it first went online in 1999, MingHui has built a vast communication network in China. It therefore has an unparalleled ability to collect eyewitness accounts from China, verify their contents and even safely arrange meetings in China between Falun Gong practitioners and human rights workers.
Media and Public Take Note of CCP's Crimes as Wenyi Wang is released without Bail
On the afternoon of April 21, Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Wenyi Wang was released without bail by a Washington D.C. court on condition that she must appear for a hearing on May 3. Some local practitioners held a press conference outside the court. Washington D.C. think tanks, NGOs and human rights lawyers spoke out in succession calling on the international community to pay close attention to the CCP's crimes of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners.
Wenyi Wang gives an interview after release |
During President Bush's meeting with Hu Jintao on the lawn of the White House, while attending as reporter, practitioner Wenyi Wang spoke out loudly for more than two minutes, calling on President Bush and Hu to stop the persecution. She was then taken away by security. On April 21, a judge announced that a hearing would be held at 9:30 a.m. on May 3, coinciding with World Press Freedom Day declared by the United Nations.
Wenyi Wang said: "Recently two key witnesses have stepped forward in succession to publicly testify about the CCP's crimes of harvesting organs from practitioners. As a physician, I cannot tolerance such inhumane crimes. Medical professionals are supposed to save people' lives." Meanwhile, she stated clearly that her appeal was her own and was not influenced by any organization or group.
The Wenyi Wang Appeal Linked to the Persecution of Falun Gong
The press conference was hosted by human rights lawyer, Dr. Terri Mash. She said that one cannot separate Ms Wang's appeal from the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong in China and the crime of harvesting organs from living practitioners and then cremating the bodies. Otherwise, it would be just like discussing Dr. Martin Luther King without discussing the civil rights movement, or discussing Gandhi without discussing his non-violent movement.
Dr. Marsh invited all people at the press conference to put the incident in a larger perspective--the ongoing persecution and killing of Falun Gong practitioners who live by the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance".
Dr. Marsh said that mounting evidence indicates that those peaceful, kind and compassionate people are being killed in labour camps and hospitals all over China. While they are still alive, their organs are removed for profit.
"As an expert and physician, Dr. Wang once vowed to save lives. However, doctors in China are murdering people instead of saving lives." Dr. Marsh said. She again asked people to put Ms. Wang's appeal into this larger perspective.
Falun Gong Practitioners Facing the Most Severe Persecution in Human History
The press conference outside a Washington D.C. court |
Michael Horowitz, Director of the Hudson Institute's Project on Civil Justice Reform and Project on International Religious Liberty, said that he had collected some Chinese websites' information in English or Japanese. Those websites wrote: You want several thousand organs, come here and we have them. "This is the persecution Falun Gong practitioners are facing," he said.
He said that we bystanders will eventually learn that they are the people who are being persecuted most severely. We have reason to believe that those repressive regimes most fear people who do not fear them.
Call for Full Investigation of Chinese Labour Camps
When interviewed, Executive Director of the World Human Rights Organization (WHRO) Timothy Cooper said: There is no question that the U.S. government needs to perform an in-depth investigation into the claims of organ harvesting from living Falun Gng practitioners in Chinese labour camps and concentration camps. The Chinese Communist regime announced that it would allow the international community to investigate three weeks after the claim. This action of transferring detainees and destroying evidence indicates that we need to further investigate all Chinese labour camps.
Cooper called on the U.S. government and UN anti-torture organization to go into all Chinese labour camps to perform a full investigation. He also hoped to sue the Chinese Communist Party for crimes against humanity.
Saddened by Media silence
Australian practitioner Jennifer Zeng was unlawfully detained in a Chinese labour camp for her belief in Falun Gong. While incarcerated, she was threatened that she would be sent to an unidentified location in northeast China for detention and she would never come back alive if she didn't denounce Falun Gong.
Ms. Zeng said: I feel very sad for media. When witnesses exposed the atrocities of harvesting organs from living practitioners, a crime never heard of in the past, the media are still remaining silent. They didn't turn their cameras to Falun Gong before Wenyi Wang protested in such an unusual way. This is really ironic.
Ms. Zeng said: "Some reporters claimed that the persecution has lasted 7 years and the persecution of Falun Gong is not newsworthy any more. However, each individual persecuted to death is a life. As media and government officials, you should ask your conscience what you should do."
Falun Gong practitioners who participated in the press conference unfurled banners exposing the CCP's atrocities of harvesting organs and called for urgent action to rescue the practitioners persecuted in China.
UK: Parade and Rally Protesting the Persecution is Held in London before the Seventh Anniversary of the "April 25th Peaceful Appeal"
On April 22, 2006, Saturday, U.K. Falun Gong practitioners held a parade and a press conference in London to mark the seventh anniversary of the "April 25th Peaceful Appeal," in which over ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners peacefully protested outside Zhongnanhai, the Chinese Government leadership's compound in Beijing. U.K. Falun Gong practitioners expressed their protest against the seven-year-old genocide and persecution against Falun Gong in China, and called on the international community to launch a thorough investigation into the crimes of harvesting and selling living Falun Gong practitioners' organs in China's forced labour camps. In the meantime, they expressed their support for nearly ten million courageous Chinese people's magnificent deeds of withdrawing from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
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| Parade procession marching through Chinatown in London |
Through London's busiest shopping area, Oxford Street, and Chinatown, the parade procession set off from the Chinese Embassy in London to the St. Martin's Square, which is not far from the Trafalgar Square. In addition to a press conference, practitioners also held some activities there to expose the facts about China's atrocities and called on the public to support Falun Gong.
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| Press conference site |
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| Reenactment to expose the CCP's atrocities of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners |
People sign their names to call for an investigation into the CCP's crimes |
Many people in the busy shopping area slowed down their footsteps to listen to the practitioners' explanations, view the words on the banners or take flyers and read them attentively. A gentleman even chanted slogans along with the practitioners. When asked, he said that it was simply because that he felt the content of the slogans was very good. He added that he personally had been persecuted in South Africa as well, and that this is a free country, so that Falun Gong practitioners are able to have their voice heard and practice the Falun Gong exercises freely.
At the press conference, Mr. John Dee, president of the European Falun Gong's Friends Association, condemned the CCP's atrocities against Falun Gong in the past seven years. He said, "In addition to illegal incarceration, re-education in forced labour camps, extending violence to other countries and fabricating lies to slander Falun Gong, recently some witnesses have further exposed the atrocities that nearly forty concentration camps were established in China to illegally harvest organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. The Chinese people are extensively fed up with the CCP, and nearly ten million of them have declared their withdrawals from the CCP, which account for about one eighth of membership of the CCP." He hoped that other governments around the world are able to condemn the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners holistically, and that protection of basic human rights shall not be ignored simply because of economic interests.
Dr. Liu Wei, chief editor of the U.K. Epoch Times, said, "The day before yesterday, Annie and Peter, the two witnesses exposing the inside story about the Sujiatun concentration camp, showed up, and testified to the atrocities of harvesting and selling living Falun Gong practitioners' organs in China's forced labour camps. They stated that they chose the date when Hu Jintao met with Bush to show up was because they wanted to take advantage of the moment when the international community's attention was focused on China to further expose China's atrocities. They risked their lives to testify for the case, without caring the risk of being killed by the Chinese Communist regime, because (he wanted to stop) atrocities of a large-scale harvesting and selling of living Falun Gong practitioners' organs in China's forced labour camps."
Australia: Sydney High Court Holds a Hearing on Falun Gong's Lawsuit against Bo Xilai
On April 10, 2006, the Sydney High Court held the first hearing regarding the lawsuit submitted by Falun Gong practitioner Pan Yu against current Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai for torture and genocide. The judge listened to the plaintiff's presentation, and accepted the evidence in the complaint that had been delivered to the defendant, and granted the plaintiff's request to further add to the materials. The judge also announced that the next hearing would be on June 26, 2006, and would inform the defendant to appear at court to respond to the suit at that time, otherwise, the case would be handled by default.
Defendant Bo Xilai has been actively following Jiang's regime to persecute Falun Gong practitioners since July 20, 1999. When he was the mayor of Dalian City, deputy secretary of Liaoning Provincial Party committee and governor of Liaoning Province, he participated in the brutal persecution of Falun Gong and Dalian became the one of the cities where the persecution was the most severe. When he was governor of Liaoning Province from January 2001 to February 2004, Bo Xilai actively planned and built large prison facilities and carried out the most cruel and ruthless persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. The recently-disclosed secret concentration camp in the Sujiatun District, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province held about 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners at a time. Witnesses revealed that Falun Gong practitioners have had their organs harvested while still alive and their murdered bodies cremated immediately to destroy the evidence. Bo Xilai cannot shirk the responsibility for the atrocities.
Plaintiff Pan Yu expressed that among forced labour camps, prisons and concentration camps across China where Falun Gong practitioners have been locked up and persecuted, the most villainous and barbaric are Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in Liaoning Province, Dabei Prison in Shenyang City, Longshan Forced Labour Camp in Shenyang City, Zhangshi Forced Labour Camp and the secret Sujiatun Concentration Camp, which are all in Liaoning Province. Bo Xilai was the governor of Liaoning Province during the period of 2001-2003 when the persecution of Falun Gong was the most severe. His hands have been stained with the blood of Falun Gong practitioners, and we will definitely bring him to justice.
Bo Xilai has committed monstrous crimes and is unable to escape being sued by Falun Gong practitioners no matter where he goes. He has been sued in the U.S., the U.K., Russia and Australia.
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