This month’s newsletter is a special edition to highlight the trade in Falun Gong practitioners’ body organs by the Chinese authorities, a practice which has been going on for a long time at the specially adapted Sujiatun Concentration Camp in Northern China. Organs have been removed from living practitioners as a matter of routine, then after they died of their injuries, they are cremated before autopsies can be carried out on their bodies. Several witnesses have revealed the secret death camp Sujiatun. This a crime against humanity and we urge everyone to help to bring this urgent issue to international organizations and governments to investigate the Secret Sujiatun Concentration Camp and the Facts of the Persecution of Falun Gong in China.
Besides, a controversial exhibition of preserved human cadavers and embryos which caused a storm of protest when it was launched in America is to come to Britain. The bodies, which are from the largest processing centre of Gunther von Hugens in Dalian, northeast China, could include Falun Gong practitioners as the centre is close to three camps where Falun Gong practitioners are detained. We are asking for help to stop this “Body World” show immediately!
Editor
- China harvesting inmates' organs, journalist says
- Witness Reveals Horrors of Sujiatun Concentration Camp
- World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong
- FGHRWG Appeals to UN Regarding Sujiatun Concentration Camp; UN Launches Investigation
- Norway: Practitioners on Hunger Strike to Protest the Atrocities at the CCP's Sujiatun Concentration Camp
- Fury as corpse show comes to UK
China harvesting inmates' organs, journalist says
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
March 24, 2006
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Jin Zhong, a pseudonym for the journalist who fled China recently, also said in an interview that a failed Chinese intelligence operation led to the 2004 death of a Japanese diplomat who committed suicide rather than give up secrets.
On the prisoner abuse, Mr. Jin said he first learned of the harvesting operation between October and December and that the prisoners used were members of the outlawed Falun Gong religious group.
"This is murder, and murder sponsored by a state," said Mr. Jin, who in the past has been a contributor to a Japanese news agency. "It must be stopped."
Mr. Jin said he came across the underground detention center while researching the Chinese government's response to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
A Chinese official was the first person to reveal that secret medical work was being done at the Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine, in Sujiatun, a suburb of Shenyang, the major city in northeastern China, he said.
Mr. Jin then said he found out that a large underground prison was built beneath the hospital and that members of the outlawed Falun Gong religious group were being held there. As many as 6,000 people are thought to be held prisoner at the underground facility, he said.
The hospital is harvesting the organs of the prisoners, including kidneys, livers, and eye parts, he said. The organs are then sold to people, from both China and abroad, who need medical organ transplants.
One source for Mr. Jin was the wife of a hospital doctor who was involved in the organ harvesting. The doctor suffered psychological problems as a result of the gruesome medical work and disclosed the secret activity. The Chinese woman also has fled to the United States.
Several other hospital workers also revealed details about the prisoner organ harvesting.
Mr. Jin said he had to hide his true identity after being threatened by Chinese government agents. He was arrested twice for his reporting and recently fled to the United States, where he hopes to seek political asylum.
Mr. Jin said bodies of the prisoners were burned in the boiler room of the hospital and that boiler room workers had taken jewelry and watches from the dead and sold them. He said he has provided information about the organ harvesting to U.S. government officials, including members of Congress.
A Chinese Embassy spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Regarding the Japanese diplomat, Mr. Jin said he first learned of the intelligence operation in December. Japan's government protested the Chinese intelligence operation, which Beijing dismissed as a groundless accusation.
Witness Reveals Horrors of Sujiatun Concentration Camp
Organs Harvested from Living Falun Gong Practitioners
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A former employee of Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine told The Epoch Times during a recent interview that the Sujiatun Concentration Camp in China was actually a part of a hospital. The concentration camp has engaged in taking organs from Falun Gong practitioners when they were still alive and selling the organs. Since 2001, the concentration camp has secretly detained approximately 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners, none of whom have been able to leave the camp alive. The hospital removed many kidneys, livers, and corneas from the practitioners. After the organ removal, the practitioners were thrown into an incinerator, which was converted from a boiler. Their ashes were dumped together with burned charcoal.
Concentration Camp Details
The hospital site is 21,087 square metres, with 17,564 square meters of building area. It employs 460 people in 24 departments and 20 specialized offices. Information from the Chinese government shows that the hospital was established in December 1988, and was formerly named the Shenyang Research Institute of Thrombosis and Liaoning Province Thrombosis Treatment Centre of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine. In June 1998, it was renamed China Traditional Medicine Thrombosis Treatment Centre.
The Chinese Business Morning View said in a story on July 4, 2004, that a farm worker died of abnormal causes in Sujiatun, Shenyang and was later cremated. The death certificate was provided by the Chinese Medicine Thrombosis Treatment Center in Sujiatun. The news caused a stir in China.
Investigative Report of Human Organ Harvesting from Alive Abducted Falun Gong Practitioners at the Sujiatun Concentration Camp
(Part II)
March 30, 2006
Introduction
The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) has confirmed in their investigations that the Sujiatun District Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital in Shenyang City, also known as the Liaoning Province Thrombosis Treatment Centre of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine (the Thrombosis Hospital for short, below) had set up an unlawful crematorium to burn the bodies and destroy evidence. The existence of a huge live human organ bank in the Shenyang City area has been verified. The live harvesting of organs for transplants from unlawfully detained Falun Gong practitioners were found in not only at the Sujiatun area but also at many other places throughout Mainland China.
I. It is Confirmed Again that the Hospital Boiler at the Sujiatun Thrombosis Hospital Used as Crematorium
As an eyewitness pointed out, the Thrombosis Hospital was the place where organs of Falun Gong practitioners were harvested while they were still alive [1]. According to our investigation, although a funeral parlour exists in the Sujiatun District [2], human bodies indeed have been cremated inside the hospital boiler. Some people involved in this gruesome process of burning bodies have collections of rings and other belongings from the corpses [3]. According to the 1997-issued Interment Management Regulation from the Chinese State Council, funeral work was managed by the civil administration department at each level. No one is authorized to build a crematory facility without approval [4]. The Thrombosis Hospital dares to openly violate state regulations to cremate human bodies using a private boiler; this implicates them for having potentially dealt with a large number of corpses, to hide their actions from public scrutiny.
II. A Huge Live Human Organ Bank Exists in Shenyang City
Shenyang is one of few cities in the nation where organ transplants are performed on an extremely large scale
We have discovered that as many as ten hospitals in Shenyang City have performed organ transplants. In 2005, 250 kidney transplants and 70 liver transplants were reported. By January 2006, the General Hospital for the Shenyang Military Region (whose Urology Department is the military region's kidney transplant centre) has performed over 1,500 kidney transplants. [5] The No. 463 Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (an Air Force hospital) in Shenyang City has topped the Shenyang area in Liaoning Province in terms of the numbers of homogeneous foreign body kidney transplants performed. By 2005, over 600 kidney transplants and 120 liver transplants have been performed in the No. 1 Adjunct Hospital of the China Medical University. [6] Due to the characteristics of the organ transplant surgeries, the large-scale development of organ transplants could only be feasible in area where supply is ample.
Organ Supply Sources
For traditional cultural ethics, Chinese people have always been conservative regarding the issue of organ donations. Thus, organ donors are rather scarce in China. According to widely circulated international reports and witness accounts, the customary source of transplant organs in Mainland China were those from death-row prisoners. [7] This is an undisputed fact in the international community. Due to the general practice of organ transplants in various areas in China, the organs from the death-row prisoners could only be used by local hospitals near the execution site of the prisoners, with a few exceptions. According to an Amnesty International report, about 2,000 prisoners were executed annually in China, [8] and the number of highest estimate could be as high as 10,000 per year. According to our medical experts, the donor match of live kidney transplants between direct-related family members is 50%, but the possibility of a complete match between two non-family members is one out of several million. [9] So, considering factors such as tissue type matching, even in an incomplete match, the actual rate of utilization of organs from death prisoners is rather low.
Applying the numbers to such a city like Shenyang, even if all usable organs from death- row prisoners that match the tissue type are utilized, the availability still cannot satisfy the annual quantity needed for actual transplant operations in that city. Yet, Wu Gang, associate professor of Organ Transplant Department in the No. 1 Adjunct Hospital of China Medical University stated, "At present, we have completely sufficient kidney sources in Shenyang!" [10]
Waiting time for organ transplant
Due to the lack of readily available kidney donors, the waiting time for a suitable kidney is lengthy. Even in the US where the sense of public organ donation is commonplace, a patient in the New England area usually needs to wait three to seven years in average for a kidney transplant, where medical institutions are abundant. According to the information from the foreign groups who organize people to go to China for organ transplant and results from the WOIPFG investigators, it only takes one week to one month to have a kidney transplant in China, including tissue type matching time. [11]
The China International Transplantation Network Assistance Centre (CITNAC) at the China Medical University in Shenyang City guaranteed one month and no longer than two months of waiting time for liver transplants. The waiting time to find a proper kidney is only one week, at most one month. If a problem arises during surgery with the provided kidney, they will guarantee another one in less than one week. [12] Because the kidney source for this possible emergency also need to match tissue type of the recipient, it is almost impossible to get a match from an executed prisoner or someone who died from an accident. The only likely source comes from a spare organ bank. Considering that a kidney has to be transplanted within 24 hours, supplies at the spare organ bank must come from living people. Taking into account tissue type matching and other factors, the truth is that a spare live human organ bank with a quite huge cardinal number for tissue type matching and harvesting is in operation at any time.
Providing organ transplant for foreigners
CITNAC in Shenyang City was established in 2003. Through its website in five different languages (Japanese, Korean, English, Russian and Chinese), the centre attracts patients around the world and claims that each year, more than 100 kidney transplants and 20 liver transplants are performed at the centre.
Since 2004, more than 100 Japanese patients received organ transplants in Shenyang City alone. [13]
From 2003 to 2005, more than 3,000 South Korean citizens went to China for organ transplants.
Voice of America has reported on a person in Vancouver who is conducting international business on kidney transplant and has arranged for many Canadian patients travelling to China for kidney transplant surgeries.
III. Sujiatun Concentration Camp is not the only one; at least eight provinces and cities have concentration camps for live harvesting of human organs from abducted Falun Gong practitioners
According to official numbers from China, from 1991 to 1998, only 78 liver transplants were performed nationally. However, since the year 1999 when the ban on Falun Gong started, the number multiplied quickly, with 118 liver transplant surgeries in 1999, 254 in 2000 and 486 in 2001. By 2001 the liver transplant surgeries totalled 996. [14] By 2003, the number drastically increased to over 3,000, [15] which means that the nation-wide supplies of organs since 1999 have increased noticeably. We showcased liver transplants as example here because without the liver, a single organ, the donor could not survive after the liver is removed.
Investigations from the WOIPFG has shown that organs from Falun Gong practitioners were used for transplant in provinces and cities such as Henan, Shandong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning, Hunan and Hubei, but probably others also. Hospital staff and directly participating doctors have expressed that they can provide Falun Gong practitioners' organs. [16] Based on our initial investigation, we are able to conclude that Sujiatun Concentration Camp is not the only one where live organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners for transplant purposes took place; such type of concentration camps exist in most part of China.
We have documented a few cases here. More details will follow in a separate report:
Case No. 1 (an adjunct hospital of one medical university in Hunan Province)
Doctor: The organs we chose were from young and healthy person. We would absolutely not use those from the elderly.
Investigator: Are there any from Falun Gong practitioners?
Doctor: You should rest assured about it. (Note: which means "absolutely")
Case No. 2 (a hospital in Shandong Province)
Investigator: a kidney from a person who practices Falun Gong is disease-free; do you have any of those types...
Doctor: Umh...We have more and more such kind now, and in April we will sure to get even more.
Investigator: Why there are more in April?
Doctor: I cannot not tell you about it, because it relates to...it doesn't mean...We don't need to explain to you about it because it cannot be explained...
Case No. 3 (a hospital in Guangzhou City)
Investigator: How long should we wait for a kidney transplant?
Doctor: If you come over, you only need to wait for about a week.
Investigator: But the kidney for transplant should be healthy and fresh, better from a live donor. You would not use an organ from a dead person, right?
Doctor: We will of course use the good one!
Investigator: Are there any from people who practice Falun Gong?
Doctor: The ones we use here are all this type.
Case No. 4 (a medical university in Tianjin City)
Investigator: The doctor said that the kidney source is very good because the person practiced Qigong. When asked which kind of Qiqong, the reply was Falun Gong. Is it true that those who practice Falun Gong have better health? ...
Hospital staff: Of course, we have this kind here as well...the organs were from persons who did still breathed or had a heart beat. We will have some too; we have got more than ten kidneys of such kind so far this year...Of course, the quality of the organ supplier is a key factor, which means that the person must be young and the time period for warm blood shortage is very short after removal [when blood supply is insufficient and the kidney stays at normal body temperature]; sometimes we even don't have this period of warm blood shortage. The kidney of such type has never had this problem, so it must be very good for recovery of the patient in the long run. This is for sure...
World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong
Concentration Camp for Falun Gong Disclosed;
Prisoners Killed for Organs
"Nobody has yet come out," Chinese Journalist Reveals
(9th March 2006)
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Information about the camp was relayed via audio recording from a Chinese journalist. It is the first time news of the secret camp's existence was disclosed to outsiders. The camp is said to hold over 6,000 Falun Gong adherents at any given time, and "nobody has yet come out" from it alive. According to the source, it contains a crematorium, and an unusually large number of doctors work there-reflecting the camp's practice of killing prisoners for their organs, which are then sold for profit.
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"Falun [Gong] practitioners are killed for their organs, which are sent off to various medical facilities. Organ sales is now a highly profitable business in China... |
The source tried to convey the horror of what is happening in the concentration camp: "Why was a crematorium built, and why are so many doctors housed there? ... The answer is something unimaginable. You must be clear that a cremator for bodies is different than a burner used for sanitation purposes."
Located in the Sujiatun district of Shenyang city, the camp, dubbed the Sujiatun Concentration Camp, is surrounded by walls three meters high, topped with electrified barbed wire. It is heavily fortified and said to be highly secret; locals know close to nothing about it. Those held inside are Falun Gong adherents from China's three north eastern provinces as well as central China; many are said to have been transferred there from various labour camps. CCP authorities involved with the camp have "learned many things from North Korea," according to the source.
"This is deeply, terribly disturbing, and confirms our worst fears: that CCP authorities remain intent on ‘eradicating' Falun Gong, and in their desperation will go to any lengths," stated FDI spokesperson Mr. Erping Zhang. "We need to be clear that the persecution has not gone away-it has merely become darker and more hidden."
The Chinese source spoke at length about the unlawful "harvesting" of organs in the Sujiatun facility. "If Falun Dafa practitioners are sent to Sujiatun," he said, "they have no chance of coming out ... The CCP won't let a prisoner consume food forever. So what are they up to, then? ... the Falun Dafa practitioners are killed for their organs, which are sent off to various medical facilities. Organ sales is now a highly profitable business in China."
"They can't find enough bodies through executions, and no bodies are more readily available for this business than those of the [Falun Dafa] practitioners," he stated.
Warning signs have surfaced in recent months.
Last June CCP authorities reportedly held a "crisis meeting" in which China's deputy minister of Public Security, Liu Jing, was assigned the job of "stamping out" Falun Gong "before the Olympic Games in 2008," according to the Paris-based Intelligence Online. Several reports have stated that authorities wish to use the Olympics as a pretext to deepen their assault on the Falun Gong.
This past January Chinese officials similarly announced a "new campaign" that would "sabotage activities of cult organizations" as part of a "complex struggle against enemies," according to a Reuters report. Past campaigns to "strike hard" have resulted in upwards of 10,000-plus executions in a single year, say human rights groups.
Word of concentration camps for Falun Gong practitioners has circulated for several years. An October 1, 2000, report by Agence France Presse told of two concentration camps having been recently built, both specifically for Falun Gong detainees. The camps were said to have been built in northwest and northeast China, and been capable of each holding up to 50,000 persons.
An October 6, 2000, report on Minghui.net stated that a concentration camp, expressly for the Falun Gong, had been built in the remote north western province of Xinjiang. Chinese sources report seeing Falun Gong adherents shipped off on trains to the Xinjiang camp. Little to no information on the secretive camp has emerged. No one to date is known to have come back from the camp.
Stated Mr. Zhang, "International media and governments around the world must pay attention to this and take active measures to investigate the concentration camp and put a stop to this barbarity and madness. We are calling for all possible support from international organizations. There must be accountability in China. If this is the price people are paying for our silence, it is chillingly tragic."
FGHRWG Appeals to UN Regarding Sujiatun Concentration Camp; UN Launches Investigation
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Professor Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur, said that an appeal alleged that at least 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners had been killed in Sujiatun and their organs were sold for transplants. He said such a practice severely violated all international human rights covenants: It is not just torture, it deprives people of their right to live.
In an interview with Reuters, Professor Nowak said, "I am presently in the process of investigating as far as I can these allegations ... If I come to the conclusion that it is a serious and well-founded allegation, then I will officially submit it to attention of the Chinese government."
Professor Nowak conducted a two-week torture investigation in China last December. He is the first UN Special Rapporteur who has ever been to China to investigate torture claims. The investigation report was published last week in Geneva. The report not only points out that torture is widespread in China but also stressed that there is a culture of fear and that the persecution of Falun Gong is very severe. The report also enumerates many of the torture methods used by the CCP. Among the torture cases collected in the report, 66% were Falun Gong cases.
Professor Nowak pointed out in the report that China has the largest prison facility in the world, and he called on the Chinese Communist government to rescind the Laogai (labour re-education) system and release all detainees.
In its appeal, FGHRWG also listed several cases in which practitioners were killed by the CCP and had organs stolen. They are Ren Pengwu of Harbin, Sun Ruijian of Ningde, Fujian Province, Hao Runjuan of Guangzhou, and Zuo Zhigang of Shijiazhuang.
Since the persecution of Falun Gong started in 1999, under the genocide policy of the CCP, a large number of practitioners have disappeared. FGHRWG provided background information of several missing practitioners, including relatives of overseas practitioners, Hong Xiong, brother of Huang Wanqing, and Hu Zhiming, brother of Hu Zhihua.
Norway: Practitioners on Hunger Strike to Protest the Atrocities at the CCP's Sujiatun Concentration Camp
By Yu Chen
 Signing in support of putting an end to the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong |
On the afternoon of March 13, 2006, Falun Gong practitioners in Norway came to downtown Bodo to stage a hunger strike to protest the CCP's atrocities in killing Falun Gong practitioners at the Sujiatun Concentration Camp in Shenyang City. Practitioners unfurled banners and distributed truth clarification materials to passers-by to expose the crimes being committed in the concentration camp.
They also collected signatures to call for an end to the persecution. Many people signed their names to show their support. An older woman expressed that she would help Falun Gong practitioners contact international human rights organizations to let them learn about the truth and put an end to the persecution as soon as possible. Falun Gong practitioners in Norway stage a hunger strike in downtown Bodo.
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| Norwegians learn about the truth |
Fury as corpse show comes to UK
Rights group demands proof that the bodies are not those of political prisoners executed in China
- The Observer
A controversial exhibition of preserved human cadavers and embryos which caused a storm of protest when it was launched in America is to come to Britain.
'Bodies ... The Exhibition' features 20 whole cadavers, preserved using a technique known as 'plastination,' made famous by the anatomist Gunther von Hagens. It will open at Earls Court later this month.
Human rights organisations have attacked the booming industry in travelling exhibitions featuring human corpses. They warned that the bodies, which are from China, could include those of executed political prisoners.
The organiser, Premier Exhibitions, acquired the cadavers in a $25 million deal with Sui Hongjin, a former partner of von Hagens at the Dalian Medical University in China.
Hongjin's record has been called into question in the past. In 2004 he and von Hagens were accused of using the bodies of political prisoners in a similar exhibition, Body Worlds - charges which they denied. They did, however, return seven bodies from their exhibition to China after two were found to have bullet holes in the back of their heads. - The Guardian
The largest processing centre of Gunther von Hagens' "Body World" body parts is in Dalian, northeast China. The centre is close to three prison camps, which are home to political detainees and members of the banned Falun Gong movement. Von Hagens said he received his bodies from Chinese officials. - Toronto Sun
China often convicts Falun Gong people for their beliefs, and apparently execute them for their organs. China's use of prisoners as guinea pigs, or as a supply to meet world demand, makes Zazi medical experimentation seem almost benign comparison. - Epoch Times
"Falun Gong practitioners are killed for their organs, which are sent off to various medical facilities. My ex-husband was one of the surgeons charged with removing organs from 6,000 living Falun Gong practitioners detained in Sujiatun concentration camp," a Chinese source said.