Tuesday, July 11, 2006

China kills for organs

I have been taking a short break from blogging because of the school holidays but I could not let this report pass by without comment:

The SMH reports "a human rights lawyer and a former cabinet minister in Canada have added their weight to charges that China has been killing Falun Gong dissidents so it can use their organs.

The lawyer, David Matas, and the former secretary of state for Asia and the Pacific, David Kilgour, spent two months investigating the accusations, which China has regularly denied.

"It is simply inescapable that this is going on," Mr Kilgour told reporters on Thursday as he and Mr Matas released their findings."

The Epoch Times reports "Falun Gong practitioners are being systematically killed for their organs in labor and concentration camps across China. This is the message that Dr. Wenyi Wang wanted the world to know when she broke protocol and stopped Hu Jintao's speech at the White House on April 20. While the world's media has focused on her act of civil disobedience, the accumulating evidence pointing towards atrocities, which led Wang to her desperate act, has thus far been largely ignored – with a few significant exceptions."

The Epoch Times also reports on "taped testimony of "Annie," ex-wife of a doctor who extracted organs from live Falun Gong practitioners at the Sujiatun Death Camp, was played at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C."

I have been an ardent critic of this regime for a long time because of its systematic prosecution of a policy of cultural genocide in Tibet. Human rights abuses of Tibetans are so many and varied it beggars belief that any country claiming to defend human rights would maintain good relations with such a regime. The rape of Tibet is grounds enough for China to stand condemned for crimes against humanity, but market forces dictate that the Dalai Lama's nonviolent campaign for Tibetan freedom is largely ignored.

The persecution of the Falun Gong and other political dissidents has been equally numbing for the collective conscience of the international community. China is even rewarded for its crimes against humanity with the Olypmic Games. Illegal organ harvesting from political prisoners killed under state sanction does not come as any surprise as this regime has got away with human rights violations on a par with some of the worst regimes of the last century. No doubt China will continue to ignore the outrage of human rights activists and governments will persist with business as usual. This is the situation tolerated by a weak international leadership.

4 comments:

bobby fletcher said...

Here's the letter I sent Kilgour about his one-sided "investigation":

Subject: Falun Gong Report Ignoring Volumn Of Contrarian Fact Shows
Lack Of Impartiality

Dear Mr. Kilgour:

I read your Falun Gong report and I am very dissatisfied with your lack
of impartiality evident in your one-sided investigation:

1) you can not divorce yourself from the fact your investigation is
sponsored by a Falun Gong group in Washington DC that is evidently
POLITICAL, as the vilification they heaped on the Chinese government,
unrelated to this allegation, demonstrates - such as "The Nine
Commentaries" and "10 million peple quit the party" political
propaganda ahead of the Chinese leader's stateside visit.

2) Your report failed to account for many contrarian facts that have
brought question to Falun Gong's claims, that are freely available
outside China. Not able to go to China does not absolve you of your
duty to critically examine ALL evidence:

* Two US government investigations started as early as 2nd week of
March, independently found the allegation not credible;

* Other media investigations, including Hong Kong newspaper Takunpao
with circulation in Canada also found the allegation not credible. FYI
Takunpao lost their government subsidies after they reported critically
on Tiananmen Square Massacre.

* Other experts have doubted Falun Gong's claim, including Harry Wu
of Laogai Research Foundation;

* Malaysian government's prior year visit to the alleged camp, which
is a joint-venture and has been open to the public for years;

* Epoch Times' rehashing of old, unrelated stories and
mis-representing autopsy photo that do not prove torture or
vivisection. The fact the photo show autopsy being performed and murder
investigation held by the Chinese government proves the opposite.

Clear Wisdom's original report on Wang Bin(2000) and Liu Yufeng(2005)
had no mention of organ harvesting, yet years later these stories are
rehashed in Epoch Times' 2006 organ harvesting accusation.

While China's human rights records should be examined, writing allegory
of "Schindler's List" is not the way. If we in the west can not be
precise with our accusation, why should anyone take what we say
seriousely?

Disappointed,


References:

- US State Department investigation:
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=April&x=20060416141157uhyggep0.5443231&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html

- US Congressional investigation reported by The Australian:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18669046-7583,00.html

- Malaysian government documenting minister visit to hospital accused
by Falun Gong:
http://crc.gov.my/clinicalTrial/documents/Proposal/TCM_Stroke%20TrialProtocol%20synopsis.pdf

- Harry Wu of Laogai Research Foundation:
http://www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/bc.cgi?bc/bccn/0606/07chinese

- HK newspaper Takunpao's investigation:
http://www.takungpao.com/news/06/03/31/ZM-545907.htm

- A reporter's first hand experience with Falun Gong media outlet,
Epoch Times:
http://holidarity.blogspot.com/2006/04/organ-harvesting-controversy.html

- 2000 Clear Wisdom story on Wang Bin, without mentioning of organ
harvesting:
http://clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2000/11/16/6164.html

Anonymous said...

Something to consider...

In regards to the culture and thought of modern Chinese people, they don't usually make up fabrications about the Chinese Communist Party. If they do ( critize, disagree, or accuse)they will be punished severely. Since the conception of the Chinese Communist party, they have ruled with fabrication and violence. They lie to deceive and kill or threaten to kill to create fear and obedience. This is the culture they have created.

Chinese people will avoid confrontation at all costs.

Any type of accusation or complaint the CHinese people publicly make- will be made knowing they could face life threatening punishments. Who would accuse the Chinese Communist Party so frivolously?

If China is innocent why will they not give Visa's to the to investigators? Why did the U.S. investigators have to wait two weeks to see the hospital, and why did they have a government official tour them through the hospital keeping careful track of what they could see?

To find out more about modern Chinese Culture created by the Chinese Communist Party read the "Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party"

http://ninecommentaries.com/

bobby fletcher said...

Anon, I'm not sure if you know this, but multiple US government investigation started as early as March 14, independently found Falun Gong's allegation not credible.

Also, Chinese dissident Harry Wu (founder of Laogai Research Foundation) also dispatched investigators to China on March 12, to investigate the allegation.

Wu's investigators on the ground found nothing. Here's a translation of his open letter, detailing his investigation:

http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060806_1.htm

Anonymous said...

Only a handful of people do not agree with the conclusions of Kilgour-Matas preliminary investigative report. http://investigation.go.saveinter.net Of course the regime has criticized the report. http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-8-10/44796.html but they've not provided any answers for the unexplained 41,500 transplants.

Since the persecution started, it is said that hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have disappeared in China and it's not hard to imagine that they would have become unwilling organ donors. The CCP has a special hatred for them and vilify them every chance they get. http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/4-12-18/24972.html

But it sounds like Harry Wu's ego has been bruised by the simple fact that other investigators came up with evidence and he didn't. Before that he was the King on 'Organ Harvesting' issues in China. I read the Kilgour-Matas report where they examined 18 pieces of evidence and their conclusions that organ harvesting targeting the Falun Gong are very credible.

Apparently the witnesses refused to meet with Harry but have met with Ethan Gutmann, Jay Nordlinger and Bill Gertz and maybe others. That is telling.

Why does Beijing want this report discredited? Beijing admitted to harvesting a few organs from a few death row prisoners last December and this is the image they want to maintain. They are not about to confess to targeting Falun Gong and by so doing admitting their genocidal campaign...there lies the gap. Form your own opinion by reading the report: http://investigation.go.saveinter.net
I find it unfortunate that Mr. Wu's http://www.faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=9452 fruitless investigation after Marth 9th -- which was already too late by then because the evidence was gone -- to be used as the foundation to discredit a very credible report exposing a genocidal campaign that should be taken seriously by people who respect humanity and the laws of heaven and earth.

Matas calls this practice a new form of evil on the planet. http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-8-17/45032.html BTW Matas has a pile of phone bills if you're wanting to cross-check them Bob. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/issuesideas/story.html?id=6a97d044-615a-496b-b7d6-e79e36636592