China’s Ministry of Public Security Issues Secret Directive to Investigate and Bar Thousands Worldwide from Olympics

NEWS - May 31, 2007 Falun Dafa Information Center [ http://www.faluninfo.net/ ]

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China’s Ministry of Public Security Issues Secret Directive to Investigate and Bar Thousands Worldwide from Olympics
Directive Targets Falun Gong, Dalai Lama, Counter-Revolutionaries, and the Handicapped

FDI: NEW YORK, NY – In what may be its most audacious Olympic act yet, China’s Ministry of Public Security has issued an incredible directive that lists 43 categories of unwanteds who are to be investigated and barred from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Falun Dafa Information Center has learned. Pariah groups include eerily vague “key individuals in ideological fields,” “overseas hostile forces,” “counter-revolutionary” figures, the Dalai Lama and all affiliates, members of “religious entities not sanctioned by the state” (e.g. Roman Catholics), “individuals who instigate discontentment toward the Chinese Communist Party through the Internet,” and even certain types of “handicapped” persons.

Members of the Falun Gong would be barred, as would “family members of deceased persons” killed in “riots” -- a euphemism for events such as the Tiananmen Massacre -- and Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province, which the regime brands “national separatists.” Only at the very bottom of the directive does it identify “violent terrorists” and members of “illegal organizations” as targets for investigation and possible barring.

To be investigated are participating athletes, members of the media, Olympic staff members, referees, sponsors, dignitaries, and the International Olympic Committee itself, among others, to determine whether they fall into any of the 43 categories. If carried out, the directive would amount to an espionage effort of astounding proportions, and would fly in the face of international law.

The Ministry’s directive, said to have been issued in April and titled “Notification on Strictly Carrying Out Background Investigations on Candidates for the Olympics and Performing a Pre-Selection Screening” has reportedly been circulated to each Chinese province and autonomous region as well as to all police stations and bureaus in municipalities directly under the Central Government. The Information Center is making available the relevant excerpt of the original document (Chinese) as well as a translation (English).

The directive also calls upon all levels of China’s regime to “cooperate,” but adds that it is “vital to keep this directive and all associated activities secret… it is of utmost importance to give the look of an easygoing environment to the outside, but in fact keep a firm handle on all activities.”

“To see China’s rulers abusing their Olympic privileges like this is simply unconscionable,” said Mr. Erping Zhang, Information Center spokesperson. “The regime appears to have gone so far beyond international norms as to risk absurdity, and is clearly bent on hiding this fact. This means that a shockingly large number of people could not participate in, work at, sponsor, or report on the Olympics. You might even have your phone tapped although you live in London, or you might be spied on in Florida, simply on account of your possible political or religious beliefs.”

“The CCP is making a mockery of the Olympic spirit,” Zhang said.

The directive is yet further evidence that China’s rulers are capitalizing on the Olympics to quash dissent, particularly the Falun Gong. A Feb. 21, 2001, Reuters report revealed that the campaign against Falun Gong had escalated as China entered the final stages of bidding for the 2008 Olympics. The report cited the state-run Xinhua propaganda outlet as saying the government had given “citations” to 110 organizations and 271 individuals “for anti-Falun Gong work” and to “wipe out” Falun Gong.

A July 17, 2001, report from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, meanwhile, disclosed that after Beijing landed the 2008 Olympics, China’s then Vice Premier declared that winning the Olympics was “justification for the country’s crackdown on the Falun Gong.”

In 2005, an intelligence journal, Intelligence Online, revealed that China’s deputy public security minister, Liu Jing, had been assigned the responsibility of wiping out Falun Gong before the Games. A directive was issued “demanding that all of the country’s security services lend a hand” in the effort. Notably, investigators were to be appointed even to Chinese embassies around the world to “infiltrate” Falun Gong groups there. This would appear to anticipate the new, April directive dictating massive international espionage.

A growing body of voices has been calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics in light of the regime’s human rights abuses. Many point in particular to the regime’s complicity in Sudan, where it has blocked U.N. and other efforts to stem the tide of genocide, with the regime itself being known to supply arms to the Sudanese government. Some China watchers have likened Beijing’s Olympic efforts to those of Nazi Germany in connection with the 1936 Berlin Olympics -- referred to by many as the Nazi Olympics. Historians have said of the ’36 Games that “the regime exploited the Games to bedazzle many foreign spectators and journalists with an image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany.” (link)

“China’s regime is using the Olympics to legitimize its oppression,” said Zhang. “Is China’s communist dictatorship to decide who gets a share of human rights come Olympics time? Or are the games to just be one big propaganda stunt?”

The Falun Dafa Information Center is calling upon the International Olympic Committee to vigorously investigate the above, and take firm, principled action to uphold the Olympic Charter and the human rights it enshrines.

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NEWS - May 31, 2007
Falun Dafa Information Center, www.faluninfo.net

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Background
Founded in 1999, the Falun Dafa Information Center is a New York-based organization that documents the rights violations of adherents of Falun Gong (or “Falun Dafa”) taking place in the People’s Republic of China. In July of 1999 China’s autocratic Communist Party launched an unlawful campaign of arrests, violence, and propaganda with the intent of “eradicating” the apolitical practice; it is believed certain leaders feared the influence of the practice’s 100 million adherents. The campaign has since grown in violence and scope, with millions having been detained or sent to forced labor camps. The Center has verified details of over 3,000 deaths and over 63,000 cases of torture in custody (reports / sources). Falun Gong is a traditional-style Buddhist “qigong” practice, with roots in the Chinese heritage of cultivating the mind/body for health and spiritual growth.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER- Contacts: Gail Rachlin 917-757-9780, Levi Browde 646-415-0998, Erping Zhang 646-533-6147, or Joel Chipkar 416-709-8678. Email: contact@faluninfo.net, Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/

Organ-harvesting claims spark call for boycott of Beijing Olympics

China's own genocide should be in the front page of the world's media before the Games.

Times Colonist: Tim Naumetz - Published: Thursday, May 31, 2007 - OTTAWA - A coalition of Falun Gong supporters is calling for a boycott of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing if the Chinese government does not allow an independent investigation of organ-harvesting allegations.

The Canadian chapter of a coalition that claims China supports the illegal harvesting of a range of organs of imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners said the boycott should begin in August unless China complies with the request.

At a Parliament Hill news conference Wednesday, former Liberal MPs David Kilgour and Simma Holt, along with a group called Doctors Against Organs Harvesting, lent their support to the demand from the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong.

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Former MP, David Kilgour, speaks during a Falun Gong demonstration, on Parliament Hill, on Tuesday Sept. 26, 2006.

"It's simply impossible, in my view, to have torture and killing going on in one part of Beijing,"said Kilgour, "and the Games going on in another."

Kilgour and Winnipeg human rights lawyer David Matas last January released a report saying they had independently confirmed allegations of Chinese organ harvesting on a "large scale" from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners.

The Chinese government last month denied the claims, saying it has banned the sale of human organs and allows medical transplants only with written consent under standards that protect the safety and health of patients.

But Kilgour and Matas said they found evidence Falun Gong practitioners are killed for their organs, which are sold to foreigners for "huge amounts of money."

Holt, who once represented the Vancouver House of Commons seat now held by Trade Minister David Emerson, accused Emerson of being complicit in organ harvesting by ignoring the allegations while supporting closer trade ties with China.

Torsten Trey, a physician with Doctors Against Organ Harvesting, compared the 2008 Beijing Games to the 1936 Olympics held in Germany only three years before the beginning of the Holocaust.

"The Holocaust in China has already started," he said. "The organ harvesting of living people is just the tip of the iceberg in the persecution of Falun Gong."

China claims Falun Gong is not a religious or spiritual movement and poses a threat to society by exercising mental control over its followers while amassing illegal wealth. It has compared the movement to unnamed cults it claims are banned in western democracies.

Reuven Bulka, president of the Canadian chapter of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong, said China should not object to an inquiry if the allegations are untrue.

"They shouldn't be afraid of an investigation," he said. "That's all we're asking."

Olympic Games and Crimes against Humanity Cannot Coexist in China: CIPFG

Media Advisory For Immediate Release May 30, 2007

OTTAWA – Rabbi Dr. Reuven Bulka, president of the Canadian chapter of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), will hold a press conference to make known the Coalition's position in light of the atrocities committed by the government of China ahead of the 2008 Olympics. He will be joined by former MP Simma Holt, Dr. Torsten Trey of Doctors Against Organ Harvesting, the Honourable David Kilgour and Canadian Students for Darfur.

Date: Wednesday, May 30, 2007; 12:30 pm

Place: Charles Lynch Conference Room,

130-S Centre Block, Parliament Hill, Ottawa

Background: The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China (CIPFG) was formed in 2006 to enable persons around the world to help investigate the persecution of Falun Gong in China by the CCP. One of its main objectives is to conduct a thorough and independent investigation in order to uncover the truth about the harvesting of organs from Falun Gong practitioners in camps, military and civilian hospitals and any other facilities across China. The evidence collected both inside and outside China will serve the purpose of ending this brutal persecution of millions of innocent people that has now continued unabated for eight years.

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Olympics and Crimes Against Humanity Cannot Coexist in China

Joint Statement

The Olympic Charter states in part: “the goal of the Olympics is to place sports everywhere at the service of a harmonious development of man, with a view to encouraging the establishment of a peaceful society concerned with preservation of human dignity. To this effect, the Olympic Movement engages, alone or in cooperation with other organizations and within the limits of its means, in actions to promote peace.” (Olympic Charter, Article3).

Safeguarding human dignity is a fundamental requirement of the Olympics. In order to win the right to host the 2008 Olympics the Chinese regime promised IOC members back in 2001 to improve its human rights record.

However, recent reports from the UN and Amnesty International have clearly indicated that human rights have been actually deteriorating in China of late, with the Olympics being used by the regime as a tool to further repress Chinese citizens.

Particularly hard hit is the community of Falun Gong practitioners. Since the Communist regime began its full-scale crackdown on Falun Gong on July 20^th 1999, 3036 deaths have been confirmed by overseas reports despite strict information blockades. UN Special Rapporteur Manfred Nowak reported in March 2007 that Falun Gong practitioners accounted for 66 per cent of victims of alleged torture while in government custody.

Since March 2006, witnesses have come forward alleging that the communist regime has built Nazi-style concentration camps to incarcerate Falun Gong practitioners. These camps house large numbers of practitioners who have had their organs removed while they were still alive; their bodies were cremated afterwards.

Reports published in July 2006 and January 2007 by Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas, and former Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific David Kilgour, support these allegations. (http://organharvestinvestigation.net ) Some China observers have in fact estimated that Falun Gong adherents constitute more than half of the 250,000 officially recorded prisoners in China’s reeducation-through-labour camps today.

The persecution of Falun Gong is undoubtedly the worst human rights disaster presently occurring in China. Wild claims by the Chinese government that they are improving human rights merely serve as window dressing and are aimed at manipulating the international community.

Failure to stop this persecution before the Olympics would mean that China is not fit to host the Games. The Olympics and crimes against humanity simply cannot coexist.

The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China (CIPFG) has over 300 members in Australia, Asia, Europe and North America, the majority of whom are from political, legal and medical professions, human rights and other non-government organizations.

Both David Kilgour and David Matas, as well as the four Chapters of CIPFG, have written separately in 2006 to relevant bodies of the PRC government or its overseas agencies to request permission to conduct investigations into organ harvesting in China. To this day, not a single response has been received.

We hereby urge the PRC authorities once again, to:

• Stop the persecution of Falun Gong immediately and release all practitioners incarcerated for their faith
  

• Stop the persecution of friends and supporters and defense lawyers of Falun Gong practitioners (e.g. Gao Zhisheng, Li Hong)
  

• Hold discussions with CIPFG to arrange details on the opening up of labour camps, prisons, hospitals and related secretive facilities for inspection by CIPFG independent investigators.

If a response to our requests is not received before August 8^th, 2007, we will join forces with supporters from around the world to call for a boycott of the 2008 Olympic Games.

Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China (CIPFG)

May 25, 2007

Canada Chapter Signatories:

Rabbi Dr. Reuven Bulka, Religious leader and scholar, Chairman of the Organ Donation Committee of the Kidney Foundation for Eastern Ontario, Canada

Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Canadian MP

Simma Holt, former Canadian MP

John Dossetor, Co-Founder of The Kidney Foundation of Canada, Officer of Order of Canada

Clive Ansley, Lawyer, China Expert, China Country Monitor of Lawyers Rights Watch Canada

Australia Chapter Signatories:

Andrew Bartlett, Australia Senator

Phil Glendenning, Director Edmund Rice Centre

Peter Westmore, President of the National Civic Council

Dr. Sev Ozdowski, Former Human Rights Commissioner

Dr. Noel Preston AM, Director Uniting Care Centre for Social Justice

Asia Chapter Signatories:

Lai Ching-Te-Taiwan, Legislator

Kenneth H.C. Chiu-Taiwan, Lawyer

Chung Koo Chin-Korea, Legal NGO Director

Szeto Wah-Hong Kong, Chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China

Edmund Bon Tai Soon-Malaysia, Lawyer

Europe Chapter Signatories:

Baroness Caroline Cox, Member of the House of Lords (UK), Chair of Europe CIPFG

Lord Thurlow – Co-Chair of Europe CIPFG

Lord Moyne

Supporters and Co-signers:

David Matas; David Kilgour (Canada)

“We laud this effort to bring to an end the organ harvesting in China from Falun Gong practitioners. It would violate the Olympic spirit for the Olympic games to take place in China while this nefarious practice continues.”—David Matas and David Kilgour

Canadian Students for Darfur (Canada)

“We need to pay more attention to China’s role in the world, how it poses a threat to humanity, not only by supporting rogue regimes such as Khartoum thus fueling the Darfur genocide, but also on how they treat their own people. Take the horrendous practice of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners for instance. It is simply unconscionable for this form of genocide to be allowed to continue. We must not keep on looking the other way and truly do what is right to stop these gross atrocities. Rewarding Communist China with the Olympics is a travesty.”

Support Human Rights in China (Sweden)

Network for Human Right in China (Denmark)

Doctors Against Organ Harvesting (USA) -- DAOH’s Statement

Doctors Against Organ Harvesting (DAOH) is a non-profit medical organization that raises awareness about unethical and illegal organ harvesting practices. DAOH also strives for righteous and ethical medical practices, and aims at protecting correct organ donation programs. Currently, DAOH is informing the medical community about barbarous live organ harvesting practices in China.

After reviewing the available data about live organ harvesting practices in China, DAOH has come to the conclusion that these practices constitute a crime against humanity. In short, these organ harvesting practices violate the ethical standards that DAOH believes the medical community should uphold. In order to raise awareness and to stand up for the well-being of innocent people, DAOH finds it necessary to communicate to China that we cannot continue with business as usual until the barbarous live organ harvesting is completely stopped and its termination is verified by an international delegation.

Currently, the world is counting down to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. A website that calls itself the official website of the Olympic Movement (www.olympic.org) states that “the Olympic Games have always brought people together in peace to respect universal moral principles.” Yet DAOH states that China failed to keep its promise to improve the human rights situation prior to the Olympic Games. In contrast to its promise, the human rights situation has not only deteriorated but even degenerated in the eyes of the international community, with the recent exposure of China’s underground illegal organ harvesting procedures. The current situation is a cruel reminder of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, which served as a figurehead for the Nazi Party to both promote their ideology and simultaneously prepare for the Holocaust.

DAOH believes that, given China’s current human rights situation, to hold and promote the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 would be to the detriment of the true Olympic Spirit. Medical doctors around the world must protest these severe medical crimes. Therefore, until the termination of the live organ harvest practices is verified, DAOH will join an international coalition to call for a boycott of the Olympic Games 2008.

https://www.doctorsagainstorganharvesting.org/

China Kidney Transplant Expert Commits Suicide

Report Quickly Deleted by Official Media

Epoch Times by Xue Fei - May 28, 2007 - On May 4, The Yangtze Evening News reported that China's most famous kidney expert, Dr. Li Baochun, had committed suicide by jumping from the twelfth floor of the Shanghai No. 2 Military Medical University Shanghai Hospital Building. Dr. Li had served as Deputy Director of the hospital and as Professor and Chief Physician for kidney disease. The report said Dr. Li's suicide was caused by depression.

On May 24, The Yangtze Evening News report was reproduced on several major websites including the website of China's most important official media, www.xinhua.net. Further analysis revealed that the cause of Dr. Li's depression and subsequent suicide was connected to his organ transplant work. Xinhua.net deleted the report almost immediately.

Hospitalized for Depression Prior to Committing Suicide

The Yangtze Evening News reported that an undisclosed source from inside the hospital had informed them of Dr. Li's depression and hospitalization.

The source told The Yangtze Evening News that during the months of March and April 2007, Dr. Li was often unable to sleep. Dr. Li had begun to take sleeping pills but their effectiveness lasted only a very short time. He fainted once, but a physical exam could not offer an explanation. By May 1, Dr. Li's depression was getting more and more serious. He was admitted to the hospital's neurology ward and started taking antidepressant drugs.

The source also revealed that on the day Dr. Li committed suicide, he had visited the seventh floor of Shanghai Hospital where he had served as Director of the Kidney Department of Medicine. The twelfth floor houses the Urological Surgery Department which was a source for fresh kidneys for Dr. Li's transplant work. A nurse told The Yangtze Evening News, that when a patient needs a kidney transplant, the transplant team will go to the Urological Team and request a healthy kidney.

Committed Suicide While At The Peak Of His Career

The Shanghai Hospital website bio on Dr. Li notes that he graduated from No.2 Military Medical University in 1986. He traveled to the United States for two years of further study toward a postdoctoral degree.

Dr. Li was Shanghai No.2 Military Medical University Subsidiary Shanghai Hospital Deputy Director, Professor and Chief Physician of Kidney Department of Medicine, a member of China Dialysis and Transplantation Association, Shanghai Chinese Medical Association, Shanghai Chinese Medical Association Study of Kidney Disease Youth Group, and the Shanghai Chinese Medical Association Study of Kidney Transplant Youth Group.

He was also an expert for the State Nature Fund Association, State Nature Fund Association Kidney Disease Analysis, an executive member of the editorial board of China Blood Purification magazine and a member of Military Health Technology Qualification Test Committee.

Many of the people working at Shanghai Hospital believed that Dr. Li had a wonderful life. He had everything including an excellent professional reputation, benefits, social position, car, house, kids and a wonderful future. Dr. Li's co-workers also said that he was at the top of his career. Dr. Li was only 44 years old.

The Hospital Refuses to Comment

The locals are talking about Dr. Li's suicide. "Everyone knows that a doctor from the Shanghai Hospital jumped out of the building," said a resident from a nearby housing complex. The Shanghai Hospital, however, is not talking about Dr. Li's suicide.

On May 14, the Director's office and the doors leading to the ward of the Kidney Department of Medicine on the seventh floor of the Shanghai Hospital were locked. A middle-aged female doctor from a nearby doctor's office appeared quite sensitive to the mention of "Dr. Li Baochu." She shut the door immediately upon learning that the questioner was a reporter.

The Transplant Doctor's Depression

Li's depression before his death appeared similar to the condition Annie (assumed name) had described as experienced by her ex-husband, the former Chief Surgeon at Sujiatun Hospital. Annie used to work at the Sujiatun Hospital. Annie has previously exposed the illegal harvesting of healthy organs from living Falun Gong practitioners at the Sujiatun Hospital. Her ex-husband was first transferred there in 2001. During the two years that he had worked as chief surgeon, her husband had often performed several cornea extractions each day without the consent of the still living donors.

In March 2006, Annie revealed that beginning in 2003, her ex-husband had begun to be more withdrawn. He would watch TV while holding a sofa pillow, but failed to notice when the TV was turned off. Later he began to have nightmares and to sweat profusely during sleep. After close questioning, her ex-husband had revealed to her the dark secrets of his involvement in the harvesting of healthy organs from living Falun Gong practitioners during his two years at Sujiatun Hospital.

According to Annie, because of a guilty conscience, her ex-husband had suffered from depression for a long period of time, even after he fled and had stopped performing organ extractions from living, non-consenting donors. He was extremely nervous even when driving. His life was eventually destroyed by his feelings of guilt.

Annie knew of another doctor who had worked on organ transplants from living non-consenting donors. Like her ex-husband, this doctor also fell into depression after conducting such illegal surgeries over a long period of time.

Organ Harvesting From Living Falun Gong Practitioners Shocks the World

The exposure of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) brutal killing of Falun Gong practitioners for profit in Mainland China through the harvesting of their healthy organs for transplant has shocked the international community.

In July 2006, two respected Canadian investigators announced to the world media that their investigations had confirmed that the CCP was involved in large-scale organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners. The report confirmed the existence of such practices and that the practices continue in China today.

In January 2007, the Canadian investigators published a Revised Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China. The latest report provided additional evidence that delineated the involvement of the Chinese army and military hospitals in the organ harvesting process.

The Shanghai Hospital is affiliated with the No. 2 Military Medical University in Shanghai. It is a Level Three Grade A hospital in the military system. On the hospital's website the Urological Department states that the waiting time for a kidney transplant is short and the success rate is high.

Visiting Chinese diplomat served $6M lawsuit

Falun Gong practitioners claim official is guilty of crimes against humanity

National Post: Melissa Leong, National Post; Published: Monday, May 28, 2007

Falun Gong practitioners charge that a visiting Chinese diplomat is guilty of crimes against humanity and served him with a lawsuit yesterday afternoon in the elevator of an Ottawa hotel.

A member of the Falun Gong spiritual movement gave Bo Xilai, China's Minister of Commerce, a statement of claim that alleges he "orchestrated and led a campaign of terror" while serving as mayor of the coastal city Dalian and deputy secretary of the Chinese Communist Party for the Liao Ning Province.

Rong Jin, a 27-year-old former Chinese resident, is seeking $6.25-million in damages claiming that she was detained on two occassions in Dalian prisons, where she was tortured in 2000 for practising Falun Gong.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

Mr. Bo met with David Emerson, Canada's Trade Minister, yesterday to discuss investment and commercial relations while dozens of Falun Gong members demonstrated outside of the Foreign Affairs headquarters.

"I have known Minister Bo for 10 years, since he was the Mayor of Dalian and ... he's my counterpart, we have a tremendous amount of work to do together and [I have] a tremendous respect for him," Mr. Emerson told reporters yesterday.

"What is transpiring in terms of these other issues, I really have no comment on that."

Falun Gong practitioners complained that the RCMP kept them from serving Mr. Bo with legal documents, which police cited was for security reasons. Lin Di, an Ottawa resident, later presented Mr. Bo with the papers at The Westin as he stood in an elevator. "He wouldn't accept it. I threw it to him."

Mr. Bo or the Chinese embassy have 40 days to file a statement of defence or Ms. Rong can ask for a judgment in his absence, said Lawrence Greenspon, a human rights lawyer in Ottawa who has taken the case. Ms. Rong is able to sue Mr. Bo in Canada because she continues to suffer damages, he added.

"When I remember my experience in China when I was a freshman in university, it is a nightmare," said Ms. Rong, an accountant now living in Toronto. "I hope this lawsuit will be helpful to my local practitioners, to free them from jail."

The statement of claim was issued in Superior Court in 2005 when Mr. Bo was scheduled to visit Canada. He did not make the trip. The statement of claim was reissued last week.

Mr. Bo, a charismatic politician who has been called the John F. Kennedy of China, has been accused of torture and murder in lawsuits brought by Falun Gong practitioners in several countries.

Calls to the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China and its embassy in Ottawa were not returned yesterday. In a statement posted to its Canadian embassy's Web site, the Chinese government called Falun Gong a "cult" that has "degenerated into an anti-China political organization."

Mr. Greenspon said the lawsuit also helps raise public awareness about the alleged injustices in China.

"At the very least, their hope is Canada should not be playing host to people of authority who are responsible for torture," he said.

Related Article:

Epoch Times: Chinese Official Served Lawsuit, but Questions Remain

Free China Rally in Canberra

This is a message from Peter Westmore, President of the National Civic Council, representative of CIPFG - The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China.

This rally marks the resignation of 22 million people from the Chinese Communist Party, an event unprecedented in the history of any Communist Party, and indeed, of any political party anywhere.

Yet in spite of the fact that the CCP has lost the confidence of so many of its members, and undoubtedly a far larger number of ordinary Chinese people who were never members of the Party, the regime stubbornly refuses to submit itself to the will of the people.

If the official title, the “People’s Republic of China”, is to mean anything, it is imperative that the Chinese Communist Party permit the operation of other political parties in China, and submit itself to the will of the people in open, free and fair elections, of the type which we are used to in Australia.

It is surely a sign that things are desperately wrong in China that a communist party can operate in Australia, but parties like the Liberal Party and the Labor Party cannot operative in China.

When China was granted the Olympic Games, it undertook to improve human rights in the country. In fact, some people said that the Olympic Games would force the Communist regime to be more open, more democratic, and to respect human rights. In fact, the opposite has happened. Today, China is less open, less democratic, and shows a contemptuous disregard for human rights: the Olympic Games have simply become an occasion for the regime to spread propaganda about its economic development.

But this development is being conducted at the expense of human rights, workers’ rights and the environment. It is a sign of the regime’s contempt for human rights that it is stepping up political controls ahead of the Olympic Games. The Australian’s correspondent in Beijing reported, just days ago, that “China … appears to be cranking up a strategy of preventing human rights activists with strong international profiles or contacts from travelling overseas, as a damage control measure in this sensitive period in the run-up first to the crucial five-yearly Communist Party national congress in October, then to the Olympic Games.” (The Australian, May 21, 2007)

Further, courageous human rights activists such as the lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, and Dr Gao Yaojie, have been detained without trial or put under house arrest. And in the meantime, an unknown, but large number of Falun Gong practitioners are being detained without trial, and their organs forcibly removed from their living bodies in acts of barbarism comparable to those which took place in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.

All this is happening today, in China, and has been documented by many former Chinese citizens in Australia as well as two well-known Canadian human rights lawyers, David Matas and David Kilgour.

The National Civic Council formed the first Australian CIPFG investigation team last year and had written to the Chinese Consulate to request access to conduct investigation into China.

We hereby urge the Chinese communist regime once again, to:

1. Stop the persecution of Falun Gong immediately and release all practitioners incarcerated for their faith.

2. Stop the persecution of friends and supporters and defense lawyers of Falun Gong practitioners (e.g. Gao Zhisheng, Li Hong).

3. Allow unfettered inspections by independent investigators from the international community to confirm (1) and (2) above, and be exonerated from the continuing live organ harvesting allegations.

If a satisfactory response to our requests is not received on or before 8 August 2007, we will support a public effort from around the globe to boycott the 2008 Olympics.

Unless the persecutions stop now, we must also call on the Australian Government to indicate, as it did with the cricket tour of Zimbabwe, that it does not approve of Australia’s participation in the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008.

It is our obligation to stand alongside the 22 million people of China who have had the courage to say “No” to the Chinese Communist Party, to salute their extraordinary courage, and to say that we stand with them in their struggle for freedom.

144 Organizations Call for Human Rights Lawyer to Accept Award in Person

Gao Zhisheng due to be given Courageous Advocacy Award in U.S. on June 30

Epoch Times: May 24, 2007 - We write this letter to urgently request that you help Mr. Gao Zhisheng , a highly important Chinese human rights lawyer, to come to the Unites States to receive the Courageous Advocacy Award by the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). The date of the ABOTA award ceremony is June 30th of this year.

Gao, known as "China's conscience," has been a target of the Chinese communist regime ever since he called upon Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao to end the persecution of Falun Gong by writing three open letters to the government, and began a relay hunger strike for human rights that spread around the world. His earlier work included defending land rights and other civil rights issues, and in 2001 was recognized as one of China's top ten lawyers.

He was arrested on August 15, 2006 following months of intense surveillance of him and his family, which involved attempts on his life. Gao was released from jail on December 22, but had not been heard from until April 6 of this year, when he was able to call Hu Jia, a prominent Chinese human rights activist and close friend of Gao, who then immediately released a letter by Gao dictated to him over the phone.

Though Gao has been forbidden by the CCP from communicating with the outside world, he has bravely tried to let the world know what is happening to his family, and what has happened to him, as a result of his support of human and civil rights in China.

In his letter, Gao recounts his treatment in prison, as well as his current situation. Despite being out of jail, Gao describes his home as a prison for him and his family, and how "no bird could even flee from my home." With his home often surrounded by more than one hundred plain-clothed police, he and his family are under constant surveillance, are denied any forms of communication, and are forbidden from meeting with anyone.

Gao described how he was abducted and beaten by more than 30 thugs on August 15, and when in prison how he was subjected to many hundreds of hours of physical and psychological torture. He tells about his highly secretive "public trial," and how one police officer told him that he had never seen so many police officers and vehicles mobilized for one man.

Gao writes further about the treatment of his family by China's regime: "Another thing is that the evil force openly holds my wife, two children, and my kin as hostages. They even deprived my wife's family and my hometown relatives of all means of survival. The CCP thugs continue to openly torment their spirits and to threaten me that they will thoroughly destroy the future of my children and the means of earning a living of my wife and all relatives of my and my wife's families. Although I had some understanding before of the evil nature of the regime—one that disregards justice, promotes shamelessness, has a complete lack of morality, and will do anything to realize its goal—I still underestimated how evil it is!"

So why has the CCP subjected Gao to such treatment? In his letter, Gao says, "Their main focus is on the relationship of me and Falun Gong—how deep this relationship is and my several open letters regarding Falun Gong. I feel clearly that the biggest worry of the evil force inside the regime is Falun Gong and the issue of civil rights."

Gao continues to be persecuted by the Chinese communist regime, and he and his family are paying a high price for seeking to uphold human rights and rule of law in China. Though Gao is not himself a Falun Gong practitioner, his support has brought to him persecution just the same.

We ask that you act to speak up for Gao's rights, and pressure the Chinese government to allow him to come to the United States to receive the Courageous Advocate Award. Gao wishes to come here to receive the award. He will, however, go back afterwards since his mission is to help the Chinese people obtain their rights. We ask that you write to China's leaders, specifically Hu Jintao, to ask that Gao be allowed to visit the United States, as well as to let them know that Gao's situation is known to the world, and that it is a source of concern.

Sincerely Yours,

Sherry Zhang, Ph.D.
Global Coalition to Support Gao Zhisheng
forgaozhisheng@verizon.net

On behalf of the following 144 organizations worldwide:

1. The Party for Freedom & Democracy in China (Sydney)
2. The Party for Freedom & Democracy in China (Oceania)
3. Support Network for the Persecuted in China
4. Secretary Bureau of The Alliance of Chinese Democratic Political Parties
5. The Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition (Australia)
6.The Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition (Sydney)
7. Chinese Labor Party (Australia)
8. Epoch Trade
9. Sydney Culture & Art Connection Center
10. Wudang School of Qigong
11. Heavenly River Writing House
12. Australia branches of Alliance for a Democratic China
13. Australia Chinese Writer's Association for Peace
14. The Party for Freedom & Democracy in China (Melbourne)
15. The Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition (Melbourne)
16. Association of Australian Public Supporting the Right of Falun Gong Belief
17. SFU China Research Association
18. Global Alliance for Democracy and Peace, Vancouver Chapter
19. Lin Zhao's Spirit Promoting Association
20. Vancouver Cast Off CCP Advocacy Society
21. Unistar Computer Inc.
22. The European Alliance of the Communist True History
23. Federation for a Democratic China (Canada)
24. June 4th Massacre Investigation
25. Lotus Flower Art Group
26. Minghui School of Canada
27. Friends of Falun Gong Association Of Canada
28. Chinese Community Centre of Metro Toronto
29. Mothers and Grandmothers for a Safe China and a Safe Canada
30. Preparation Committee of Chinese United States
31. PostmanChinese
32. Chinese Yidugongdu Liaison Center
33. Danmark Branch of Chinese Democracy Party
34. Union Government of China
35. Hong Kong Bright Strength Limited
36. Tianyao Web
37. Federation for a Democratic China (Denmark)
38. New China Magazine
39. Association of Chinese Students and Scholars in Germany
40. Yau Tsim Mong Mutual Development Association
41. Hong Kong Community Development Network
42. Southern Democratic Alliance
43. James Lung's Office of Community Service
44. The Front-Line Magazine
45. Chinese Students Association in Ireland
46. The Party for Freedom & Democracy in China (New Zealand)
47. The Party for Freedom & Democracy in China (Auckland)
48. Nursery of Minghui School in Taiwan
49. China Support Network
50. Visual Artists Guild
51. The Global Coalition of Chinese Veterans Who Have Quit the CCP
52. Global Coalition of the Good Riddance CCP
53. San Diego Society for the Protection of Freedom of Press
54. Omnifood, Inc
55. Friends of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party in San Diego
56. The Coalition to Rescue Persecuted Intellectuals in Mainland China
57. Coalition to Rescue Orphans of the Persecuted Individuals in Mainland China
58. Overseas Exiles Headquarter of Chinese Democracy Party
59.Caring for China Center
60. Liberty Bell Forum
61. Delaware Asian Culture Center
62. NTDTV Philadelphia
63. Sound of Hope Radio Philadelphia
64. Epoch Times Philadelphia
65. Greater Philadelphia Asian Culture Center
66. Committee for defending Orthodox Chinese Legacy and Language
67. The Alliance of Chinese Democracy
68. The Velvet Action Of China
69. China Democracy Party World Union
70. China Peace
71. Chinese Republican Party
72. Chinese Political Refugee Association
73. Zhao Ziyang Funeral Committee
74. Health & Life Biweekly
75. Association For Asian Research
76. UltraReach Internet Corp
77. Tianjiao Cultrue & Art Center
78. SecretChina News Net
79. Garden Networks
80. Concord International
81. Sino-Tibet Study Group
82. Friends of Falun Gong
83. Dynaweb
84. Oriental Culture Association
85. Brilliance Services Inc.
86. Chinese New Immigrant Association
87. Broadpress Inc
88. Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong
89. The Way of China Bimonthly Electronic Magazine
90. Netdigest
91. Nine Commentaries on the CCP Website
92. Beijing Spring
93. NewCosmos Systems
94. The Press of Overseas Chinese Students
95. China Affairs
96. Social Democratic Party, U. S. West Branch
97. Chinese Democracy Education Foundation
98. China Forum (Los Angeles)
99. Overseas Chinese Democratic Poets Association
100. Hong Kong Forum (Los Angeles)
101. Traditional Chinese Cultural Centre in Southern California
102. Metropolitan Los Angeles and Orange County "Quitting the CCP" Service Center
103. New Culture Center of Illinois
104. Foundation for East-West Cultural & Technological Exchange
105. Chinascope
106. China Mental Health Watch
107. Sound of Hope Radio Network
108. Global Information Freedom Inc
109. Global Coalition Against Exporting State-Terrorism from CCP
110. Minghui School
111. Washington Forum
112. FGM Media, Inc
113. Fa Wang Hui Hui (Human Rights Violation Investigation Organization)
114. The Epoch Times
115. Press Freedom and Human Rights League
116. Preparatory Committee for Safeguarding the Northern Homeland
117. 6.28 Watch
118. Yale Falun Gong Club
119. Connecticut Chinese Culture Association
120. Amnesty China
121. New England Life and Science Research Association
122. Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners and worldwide branches
123. United Services & Trading Co.
124. The Fraternity of Overseas Chinese Veteran
125. International Institute of Future Science & Culture
126. Alliance to Protect the Rights of Women and Children
127. Great Thinking Club
128. China Democracy and Long March Foundation of Boston
129. Boston New Life and Culture Center
130. Boston Forum
131. Friends of Hong Kong and Macao at Boston
132. Boston-Chinese Macao Club
133. China Forum (UC Berkeley)
134. Friends of Charles Lee
135. Center for Global Culture Exchange
136. Federation for a Democratic China
137. The Startup of Macao Democracy
138. China Social Democratic Party
139. The Solidarity Union of Democrats of China
140. Global Service Center for Quitting CCP
141. Global Coalition Against Article 23 Legislation
142. Bye CCP
143. World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong
144. The Global Coalition to Bring Jiang to Justice

Taiwan: International Human Rights Expert Says the CCP Should Allow Investigations Into the Allegations of Organ Harvesting

(Clearwisdom.net) By Zheng Xiaowei - May 22, 2007 - Mr. Theo van Boven, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and an international human rights issue expert from Holland, said during a visit to Taiwan that China has signed the UN Convention against Torture, so it should stop the torture. Mr. van Boven pointed out that since China denies the allegation of harvesting organs, the Chinese Government should allow professionals to conduct investigations into this issue in China.

Mr. Theo van Boven, from Holland, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and an international human rights issue expert

Mr. van Boven said during an interview in Taiwan that he received many materials about the persecution of Falun Gong when he was the UN Rapporteur. He has signed an open letter in Europe requiring the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to open the gates for professionals to conduct investigations into organ harvesting in China.

Mr. van Boven said that although the CCP has been denying the existence of organ harvesting, there are many conflicts between their official statements and information from individuals. Mr. van Boven said that it is difficult to know the details about the organ harvesting, since investigations are not allowed by the CCP. He emphasized that professionals should be allowed to conduct independent investigations.

He pointed out that China has signed the UN Conventions Against Torture, a document that requires the signing governments to conduct unbiased investigations as soon as allegations of torture are brought up.

The Olympic Games is a Chance for International Society to Help with the Human Rights Issues in China

Mr. van Boven said that the 2008 Olympic Games is a chance to observe the human rights issues in China. He pointed out that it is proper to connect the Olympic Games with the human rights issues, and that international society should use this chance to improve the human rights situation in China.

Seventy-three year-old Mr. van Boven has been concerned about human rights in China for a long time. When he was the UN Rapporteur, he mandated that investigations be conducted in China. Due to the Chinese government's refusals to cooperate, such investigations were never carried out. The current UN Rapporteur has gone to China, but due to all kinds of difficulties, he has only collected very little evidence.

Mr. van Boven said that the current rapporteur has made many good suggestions to improve human rights in China, but what is more important is to carry out these suggestions. International society should pay attention to the implementing of these suggestions in China.

The CCP's Slow Response to a UN Inquiry on Organ Harvesting Generates More Concerns

(Clearwisdom.net) By Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group - May 22, 2007 - Since the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) atrocities of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners were exposed, though it is hard to believe such atrocities could happen in this 21^st century, more and more supporting evidence has been collected suggesting that the atrocities are indeed taking place.

Soon after the atrocities were revealed, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Manfred Nowak, told the media that he would investigate. Nowak is the only UN Special Rapporteur on Torture who has made a visit to China to perform an investigation. He said that persecution cases of Falun Gong practitioners make up 66% of the the torture cases happening in China and the persecution of Falun Gong group is the most widespread and brutal.

Compelled by conscience, Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas and former Canadian Secretary of State (Asia Pacific) David Kilgour performed an independent investigation on the allegations of organ harvesting. Their report concluded that the atrocities are happening in China.

Though the report has received wide attention, many governments have failed to take a stand on this severe human rights issue. Instead, many of them kicked the ball to the UN, and waited for the UN investigation results.

To many UN special rapporteurs, organ harvesting is a new level of crime. In the past year, the organ harvesting atrocities have attracted attention from three UN special rapporteurs, who have contacted the CCP on several occasions requesting clarification and explanation.

Three UN Special Rapporteurs Sent Appeal Documents to China Regarding Organ Harvesting Atrocities

Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak (left)

Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion, Asma Jahangir (right)

In the most recently released UN Annual Report, some investigation activities of the UN special rapporteurs on the organ harvesting atrocities and some official correspondent letters were disclosed. According to this report, on August 11, along with Nowak (special rapporteur on Torture) and Sigma Huda (Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons), Asma Jahangir, the special rapporteur on freedom of religion, questioned the Chinese Communist regime regarding the organ harvesting allegations. Below is the original appeal document (http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G07/117/05/PDF/G0711705.pdf?OpenElement, page 28):

"Communication sent on 11 August 2006 jointly with the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture and the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially in women and children.

The Special Rapporteurs brought to the attention of the Government information they had received concerning organ harvesting. According to the allegations received, organ harvesting has been inflicted on a large number of unwilling Falun Gong practitioners at a wide variety of locations, for the purpose of making available organs for transplant operations. Vital organs including hearts, kidneys, livers and corneas were systematically harvested from Falun Gong practitioners at Sujiatan Hospital, Shenyang, Liaoning province, beginning in 2001. The practitioners were given injections to induce heart failure, and therefore were killed in the course of the organ harvesting operations or immediately thereafter.

It is reported that employees of several transplant centres have indicated that they have used organs from live Falun Gong practitioners for transplants. After the organs were removed, the bodies were cremated, and no corpse is left to examine for identification as the source of an organ transplant. Once the organs were removed they were shipped to transplant centres to be used for transplants for both domestic and foreign patients. Officials from several detention facilities have indicated that courts have been involved in the administering the use of organs from Falun Gong detainees.

It is reported that there are many more organ transplants than identifiable sources of organs, even taking into account figures for identifiable sources, namely: estimates of executed prisoners annually, of which a high percentage of organs are donated by, according to the statement in 2005 of the Vice Minister of Health Mr. Huang Jiefu; willing donor family members, who for cultural reasons, are often reluctant to donate their organs after death; and brain-dead donors. Moreover, the reportedly short waiting times that have been advertised for perfectly matched organs would suggest the existence of a computerized matching system for transplants and a large bank of live prospective donors.

It is alleged that the discrepancy between available organs and numbers from identifiable sources is explained by organs harvested from Falun Gong practitioners, and that the rise in transplants from 2000 coincides and correlates with the beginning of the persecution of these persons.

On organ transplants, in general, it has been reported that in March 2006, legislation was introduced which bans the sale of human organs and requires the donor to give written permission. The legislation also limits transplants to certain institutions, which must verify the source of the organs. This law came in force on 1 July 2006. Contrary to the Government assertion that human organs have been prohibited from sale, in accordance with the 1991 WHO guiding principles, it has been reported that up to this time Chinese law has allowed the buying and selling of organs, has not required that donors give written permission for their organs to be transplanted, there has been no restriction on the institutions which could engage in organ harvesting or transplants, there was no requirement that the institutions engaged in transplants had to verify that the organs being transplanted were from legal sources, and there was no obligation to have transplant ethics committees approve all transplants in advance.

CCP Late Response Raises More Questions

1. After the appeal document was issued, it took more than 3 months for the Chinese Communist regime to formally respond to the UN.

2. In the response, it claimed: "In order to clarify the facts, the Sujiatun District Government carried out an investigation at the hospital, domestic and foreign media including Japan's NHK and Hong Kong's Phoenix Satellite Network and Ta Kung Pao conducted on-the-scene interviews, and two visits were paid by consular personnel from the US embassy. Based on the results of these investigations it was discovered that the hospital only had 300 beds and was completely incapable of housing more than 6,000 persons... and there is no evidence to show that it is being used for any purpose other than as a public hospital."

It is a common sense that there is a dramatic difference between "visit" and "investigation." Investigations require international professionals and need to be performed according to international standards. How can media and consular officials perform an effective investigation? In addition, among the invited media, the Hong Kong media outlets are known to be pro-communist and the Japanese NHK never reported that visit.

Meanwhile, the special rapporteurs questioned several large hospitals which were likely involved in organ transplantation using organs harvested from living Falun Gong practitioners. The CCP had no response to address this aspect, implying that such allegations were true.

3. In the appeal document, the special rapporteurs questioned why the CCP enacted a new regulation on human organ transplant after the organ harvesting allegations were made. The CCP argued that the regulation was to reiterate the 1991 agreement with the WHO. This response is just absurd. Why hasn't the 1991 agreement been effectively implemented in the past 15 years (the regulation was to become effective on July 1, 2006)? This only suggests that the international community should examine whether the CCP has fulfilled any of its commitments that it made to all kinds of international organizations.

4. In their response, the CCP also claimed "The relevant Chinese Government agencies are drafting Human Organ Transplant Regulations in order to create the necessary regulation of human organ donation, registration, matching, and transplant." Again, this statement reveals that the regime is trying to cover up its crimes.

To summarize, the CCP's response to the UN's concerns about the organ harvesting allegations is: We are drafting more laws to regulate human organ transplant in China. Doesn't this suggest that all the allegations of organ harvesting were true?

CHINESE WRESTLE WITH BIOETHICS STANDARDS

Bio Edge: Australasian Bioethics Information, Australia: May 23, 2007 - A leading Chinese social scientist has praised his country's efforts to create and implement bioethical standards for research involving human subjects. Qiu Renzong, of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in Beijing, says that new principles adopted in January "successfully fit ethical review within the country's own laws and regulations while also abiding by international bioethical principles. They clearly state that the process of ethical review should be independent, objective, just and transparent."

Mr Qiu says that some of his countrymen wanted to do their research without constraints in order to catch up to more developed countries and ethicists. But, he says, this is both wrong and dangerous. Wrong, because ethics do not necessarily impede progress; and dangerous because science could lose public support if it tramples on ethics. Interestingly, the ethical principles he praises seem to be a fusion of Confucian principles with American pragmatism -- not Marxism.

A shrill opponent of the regime, the Epoch Times newspaper, which is supported by the Falun Gong, points out that vast swathes of Chinese medicine are exempt from bioethical regulation. It is particularly concerned about military hospitals where, it claims, executed prisoners and Falun Gong practitioners are being stripped of their organs to treat wealthy Taiwanese.

It claims that record-keeping for organ transplants in these hospitals is very poor. Many of the patients use fake names and addresses and it appears that all organ transplant records in Chinese hospitals are destroyed. If true, this would make it difficult for the government to monitor whether or not high-sounding ethical principles are being observed. ~ SciDevNet, May 18; Epoch Times, May 19

Transplants and Ethics in San Francisco

Epoch Times: May 23, 2007 - This past month the world's leading transplant experts gathered in San Francisco to share important advances and discoveries at two major conferences, the annual American Transplant Congress 2007 (ATC) and the World Heart and Lung Transplantation Congress.

Over 10,000 attendees traveling from all over the world, including physicians, surgeons, nurses, pharmacists, and organ procurement personnel, came to the Bay Area to speak in-depth about their latest findings and breakthroughs. Along with discussions into the latest biomedical advances there were also discussions about important ethical and moral problems in the field of transplantation.

One of these concerns was highlighted by Falun Gong practitioners who stood outside the convention centers raising awareness to the attendees and public about a serious problem in international human rights and medical ethics.

Growing evidence suggests that thousands if not hundreds of thousands of prisoners of conscience in Chinese labor camps have been and are being killed for their organs as part of a lucrative and burgeoning transplantation business in China.

If true, these crimes represent the gravest violation of medical ethics since the horrific crimes committed by German doctors during the holocaust.

Investigative Report Confirms Horrific Practice

Perhaps the most compelling evidence supporting these claims is the investigative report published last July by David Kilgour, former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific and international human rights lawyer David Matas.

In The Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China , and their revised report— Bloody Harvest —published in January this year, the authors conclude that China is harvesting organs in large scale from unwilling live prisoners of conscience, primarily Falun Gong practitioners.

The report is based on a number of well established facts; the number of organ transplants has dramatically increased in China since the start of the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999. The report lists for example that there were only 22 liver transplant centers in China before 1999, and as of 2006 there are over 500. In 1998 the number of liver transplants in all of China totaled 135, and in 2006 alone over 4,000 were carried out.

Where are all the organs coming from? The Chinese Health Ministry acknowledged for the first time in 2005 that only 5 percent of organs transplanted in China come from family donation or brain-dead donors, and admitted that the other 95 percent are from executed prisoners. However, these numbers do not fully add up.

According to the Kilgour and Matas report, even taking into account all the prisoner executions (from Amnesty International reports) between the period of 2000 to 2005, the source of approximately 41,500 organs remains unaccounted for. There are many pieces of incriminating evidence that support the authors' conclusions that these organs are coming primarily from live Falun Gong prisoners of conscience.

The evidence detailed in their report includes interviews with various eyewitnesses in China, who were some of the first people to reveal these crimes to the world community. Also, investigative calls were made to hospitals inquiring about transplants where Chinese medical staff have stated directly that they have Falun Gong organs available, that they are healthy organs and available within weeks.

Organs Readily Available on the Internet

There are marketing Web sites from China (i.e. http://en.zoukiishoku.com/ ) in multiple languages specially geared to foreigners with price listings for each organ; in many cases these transplant websites guarantee availability of a matching organ within two to three weeks. The average waiting time for a kidney or liver in most western countries is at least three to eight years.

In addition, many Falun Gong practitioners who have been in labor camps in China testified to having been subjected to extensive medical testing including blood draws. This is presumably the way the Chinese government has created a large bank of organ donors that are pre typed and matched to be killed on demand when needed.

Although there has long been concern over ethical standards of organ transplant practices in China (the U.S. Congress first held special hearings on the subject back in 2001), since the publication of the Kilgour-Matas report this concern has only grown. With this increased concern there are now signs that the medical community is beginning to take steps to address this serious problem.

Various societies, such as the British Transplant Society, the World Transplant Society, the National Kidney Foundation, and recently the United Nations, have issued statements concerning unethical organ procurement practices in China.

Physicians in some countries are beginning to take active measures to address the problem. According to a recent Epoch Times report, Professor John McCall, the New Zealand representative for the transplant section of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and transplant specialist at Auckland Hospital, has signed, along with another 20 transplant specialists, a "strongly worded letter" to the New Zealand government.

Among their recommendations is a ban on training Chinese doctors in transplant surgery until they can be assured that the skills will not be used to harvest organs from unwilling donors.

UCSF Researcher Surveys Medical Professionals

According to one study ("Ethical Practices in Organ Procurement: An International Survey") presented this month at the ATC by a UCSF medical researcher, Dr. Scott Biggins, the above measures would be supported by most members of the transplant community.

In this survey, over half of the liver transplant specialists surveyed would not participate in the training of physicians who intend to practice in countries with unethical procurement practices.

In addition, over 67 percent would support an embargo on scientific reports coming from countries with unethical procurement practices.

Results of the survey showed that only four percent of liver transplant specialists felt China had unethical organ procurement practices, contrasted with 87 percent who considered organ procurement practices to be ethical in the United States. Most would discourage patients from going to china for a transplant (based on concerns of the use of condemned prisoners).

Dr. Biggins pointed out that "There was a wide discrepancy in providers' responses," referring to some of the responses from physicians' surveys which ranged from "Wouldn't you send your wife to China if there was no alternative?" to "The practice in China borders on murder." Dr. Biggins remarked that there are still many people who need to be educated on unethical organ procurement practices.

Another study at the ATC looked at transplant tourism, a term referring to when a patient seeks a transplant in a foreign county. Dr. Merion's study from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services looked at patients who withdrew from the kidney transplant list and then obtained a transplant in another country.

A total of 119 were reported, the total number being unknown and very difficult to calculate. Among the results of the study, California was the state with most residents seeking transplants elsewhere, at 44 percent of the total. China was the country most frequented for transplants.

Dangers of Chinese Medical Procedures

Aside from the ethical and moral concerns over transplant tourism in countries with unethical procurement practices, there is also concern among transplant specialists about the quality and outcome of the procedures in these countries.

Dr. Adam Mclean from Hammersmith Hospital in London told The Epoch Times he has had three patients who went to China to get transplants. One of them contracted Hepatitis B from the procedure and eventually passed away. Dr. Mclean does not recommend patients to go overseas to countries such as China. The main reason he disapproves is due to the unethical nature of these practices, however, he also mentioned other reasons such as the high rate of complications, severe infections, and high rejection rate, among others.

Another surgeon from London also supported these views. His hospital in London conducted a survey into overseas transplants, showing there was a 50 percent one-year graft survival compared to the 90-95 percent one-year graft survival that would be expected in the U.S. and Europe.

China kills to harvest organs: MD

Doctors Against Organ Harvesting are giving everyone a fair warning about getting suspicious organs from China where Falun Gong practitioners are killed on demand to provide rich foreigners with organs. Check the report 'Bloody Harvest' to find out more about this macabre practice.

Star Phoenix: Live donors used to stock Chinese organ trade: report Published: Friday, May 18, 2007 (TORONTO) Foreign patients who travel to China for transplants are likely receiving organs culled from political prisoners who are alive when their corneas, kidneys and livers are harvested, then left to die, an international group of doctors is warning.

China has long used organs from executed criminals, but since 2000 has turned to living donors and outlawed Falun Gong members to supply a growing trade in medical transplants, Doctors Against Organ Harvesting said yesterday.

The newly formed organization is seeking to warn patients that someone else's life is likely being sacrificed in the process of obtaining organs.

"Each person who travels to China for an organ causes the death of another human," said Dr. Torsten Trey, a Washington, D.C.-based physician and founding member of Doctors Against Organ Harvesting.

The group is sounding the alarm in the medical community about evidence of unethical transplants in China and want doctors to impress the information upon their patients. They want hospitals and universities to close their doors to visiting Chinese physicians and scholars looking to hone their techniques. And they want medical journals to reject research on transplants conducted in China.

"Medical science cannot build up any knowledge which is based on inhuman and unethical procedures," said Trey, who compared China's pilfering of organs from Falun Gong practitioners to Nazi medical experimentation during the Holocaust.

Doctors Against Organ Harvesting was formed in the wake of a Canadian investigation first released last year.

Authored by former Liberal MP David Kilgour and Winnipeg human rights lawyer David Matas, the report claims there is a widespread and systematic policy in China of selling organs from living donors to a growing clientele of desperate patients.

Kilgour said Thursday it is clear Falun Gong members are being targeted over other ethnic groups and religions, as a part of a campaign to villainize their spiritual practice since it fell out of favour with the government in 2000.

The report's conclusions were drawn from interviews with a handful of eyewitnesses from the medical side, recipients of organs harvested in China, official government pronouncements, statistics showing a sudden explosion in the number of transplants performed, marketing websites and undercover inquiries to hospital.

In one instance, an Asian patient recounted that after rifling through a list of potential donors, a military doctor departed and returned to the hospital several times, bringing back a total of eight different kidneys before finally settling on a match.

In another, a sick patient found out one day he needed a transplant and had an organ within 24 hours.

Websites market transplants in China in five different languages and in some cases guarantee availability of a matching organ within two weeks. The average wait time for a kidney in Canada is 32.5 months, while in British Columbia it is 52.5 months.

In surreptitious phone calls to Chinese transplant hospitals by Mandarin-speaking investigators, medical staff admitted organs came from Falun Gong prisoners.

While he is sympathetic to the plight of ailing Canadians who wait years for a transplant and face the prospect of dying before a match comes along, Kilgour said patients and doctors cannot turn a blind eye.

"Medicine cannot be practised by killing innocent people like chickens," he said.

Gerry Koffman, a Toronto general practitioner and member if Doctors Against Organ Harvesting, said there are about 100 confirmed cases of Canadian patients from Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver having transplants done in China.

One kidney specialist told him about a patient with end-stage renal failure quietly disappearing for several weeks then returning to sheepishly seek after-care for his "second" organ. When his body rejected the first, Chinese doctors quickly supplied him with a second, Koffman said.

The exposure of China's transplant industry, he added, should also be a wake-up call to all Canadians to sign their donor cards so the sick aren't forced to make such desperate choices.

"If more organs were available there would be no need to become an organ tourist," he said.