International human rights lawyer David Matas and former Canadian Secretary of State Asia-Pacific David Kilgour have compiled two reports on China's organ trade, concluding that a state-sanctioned genocide campaign is seizing organs from Falun Gong practitioners and selling them for high prices.
"Genocide and Olympics cannot coincide in China," they say in their call for a possible boycott.
In a joint statement Matas and Kilgour said contrary to conditions set by the International Olympic Committee in 2001 that China be awarded the Olympics on the proviso human rights would improve, recent reports from UNHRC and Amnesty International "clearly indicate" that human rights are deteriorating.
Matas and Kilgour, along with the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China (CIPFG) will call for boycott unless the Chinese regime stops persecuting Falun Gong and supporters -including detained human rights lawyers (ie. Gao Zhisheng, Li Hong) - and allows an independent international investigation into the state-sanctioned organ harvesting allegations.
French Presidential candidate, Francois Bayrou, is also calling for a boycott.
Olympics Encouraging Human Rights Abuses
Amnesty International's latest assessment of China's progress toward promised human rights improvements ahead of the Olympics suggests that instead they seem to be "acting as a catalyst to extend the use of detention without trial".
"If the Chinese authorities and the International Olympic Committee are serious about the Olympics having a 'lasting legacy' for China, they should be concerned that the Games are being used as a pretext to entrench and extend forms of detention that have been on China's reform agenda for many years," said Catherine Baber, Deputy Asia Pacific Director at Amnesty International.
"The IOC cannot want an Olympics that is tainted with human rights abuses -- whether families forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for sports arenas or growing numbers of peaceful activists held under 'house arrest' to stop them drawing attention to human rights issues," Baber said.
Amnesty International has sent copies of its latest update to the Chinese authorities and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), noting that these issues are directly relevant to Beijing's hosting of the Olympics and key principles in the Olympic Charter, such as 'preservation of human dignity'.
"The IOC cannot want an Olympics that is tainted with human rights abuses -- whether families forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for sports arenas or growing numbers of peaceful activists held under 'house arrest' to stop them drawing attention to human rights issues."
- Catherine Baber, Deputy Asia Pacific Director at Amnesty International.
UN special reporter report adds to concern
UN special reporter on torture Manfred Nowak has written letters to the Chinese regime highlighting the concern over their human rights abuses.
The UN asked the Chinese authorities to explain the illegal detention of human rights lawyers and the allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners at a wide variety of locations.
"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," Nowak reported in his summary on March 20, 2007.
The Chinese Communist Party responded to the UN by denying all the allegations. (more)
No comments:
Post a Comment