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.
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 20th 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 8th, 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.
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