BIG Torch Relay Poster

Banners: No Human Rights, No Olympics

Poster: Support the relay

Newsletter # 2

The Global Human Rights Torch Relay, a year long event initiated by the CIPFG, is currently relaying in Europe. It has gained much support wherever it goes. We are most grateful for the great number of international organizations that have contacted us and inquired about global participation. As well, we warmly welcome volunteers from the international community that have expressed an interest in making contributions to the torch relay activities. In order to make participation easy, we would like to take this opportunity to make the following announcements:

1. Countries and regions receiving the torch:

As of August 28, 2007,so far there are 37 countries and regions that have registered to participate in the Human Rights Torch Relay. They are:

Greece, Germany, Czech, Austria, Romania, Switzerland, France, Slovakia, Lithuania, Italy, Latvia, Estonia, Belgium, Holland, Bulgaria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Ghana, Ethiopia, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Malaysia, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Macau, Hong Kong and China.

As the countries that would like to participate continue to grow, the torch relay route might be readjusted accordingly. Please go here from time to time for updated information.


2. Suggested slogans used at Human Rights Torch Relay events: (can be made
into banners and T-shirts)

a. Olympics & Crimes Against Humanity Cannot Co-exist in China

b. Stop Killing Falun Gong Practitioners for Their Organs

c. Free Falun Gong Practitioners and Supporters

d. No Human Rights, No Olympics

e. Support an Olympic Organized by the Chinese People without the
Communists

August 28, 2007

Kilgour, Darfur, Organs and Torch Relay

GOVERNMENT OF CHINA ROLE IN SUDAN/DARFUR, ORGAN SEIZURES, OLYMPIC GAMES AND GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS TORCH RELAY

Address by Hon. David Kilgour, J.D.

Institut des Affaires Publiques de Montreal/Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal

Hotel Delta, 777 University Avenue

Montreal

15 August 2007

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The China Fantasy book by an American, James Mann, is helpful here because it challenges a number of three decades-old assumptions of U.S. politicians of both parties, Fortune 500 executives, sinologists and diplomats. He argues that it is time to stop overlooking the government of China’s human rights abuses, the crushing of political dissent at home and support for pariah regimes abroad.

On the activities of the government of China abroad generally, Mann notes that it undermines democratic values and human dignity wherever it can get a foot in any door. For example, it gave Robert Mugabe a honourary degree and economic help to his regime, which is one of the most brutal on earth. It also supplied him with helicopter gun ships. It is the principal backer of the military junta in Burma/Myanmar, where Aung San Suu Kyi continues under house arrest 16 years after she and her supporters won an open election. When Uzbekistan president Islam Karimov ordered a murderous crackdown on demonstrators in 2005, China’s government supported him.

Mann reminds readers that a continuing totalitarian China also bolsters Russia’s currently diminished commitment to democracy. For example, during the 1991 coup attempt by the Soviet military and intelligence officials against Mikhail Gorbachev, China’s government media gave positive and extensive coverage to the plotters, barely mentioning Boris Yeltsin or his democratic allies, and was left disappointed when the coup attempt failed.

In short, principled people everywhere should be working much smarter and harder to encourage the development of a China that is democratic. Dunn correctly notes that every American president since Nixon has either given up on or ignored the issue of democracy in China. The same is certainly true of other leaders of democratic countries, including our own, although Prime Minister Harper said recently that our relationship with China will from now on be determined by both human values and commercial interests.

Government of China role in Sudan/Darfur

In Sudan, where many independent observers have concluded that the Bashir regime has been committing crimes against humanity and genocide in its province of Darfur since mid-2003, not to mention similar methods used in South Sudan for many years earlier, the Beijing remain his major diplomatic backer. There is little doubt that the government of China’s recent sudden interest in stopping the killing, burning and raping, which continues against communities deemed ‘African’ in Darfur, is related to offsetting for public relations purposes the “Genocide Olympics” charge about which Darfur supporters like Mia Farrow continue to raise public awareness.

Consider:

• Over the past decade, the government of China has provided the Bashir government with more than $US ten billion in commercial and capital investment, mostly for oil investments, with crude oil comprising virtually all of Sudan’s exports and much of it going to China. Approximately seven percent of China’s oil imports currently now come from Sudan.

• According to one source within Sudan, up to seventy percent of the Sudanese government’s revenues from oil are spent on arms, a good deal of them coming from China. Nick Kristof of the New York Times has reported that the government of China has built four small arms factories in Sudan.

• In February of this year, President Hu of China, visiting Khartoum, offered to forgive $80 million of his host government’s debt and promised another $13 million for infrastructure, including a new presidential palace.

• The most valuable service Hu has provided to Bashir’s government is using China’s permanent veto at the UN Security Council to protect the Sudanese regime from any robust peacemaking initiatives while the slaughter in Darfur continues. Only following Mia Farrow’s op-ed piece in March, 2007, which accused the government of China of assisting in genocide, did China’s UN representative join in the Security Council initiative to send 26,000 civilian police and soldiers to Darfur.

• The problems already evident with this latest in a long series of ineffective Security Council initiatives on Darfur include:

Ø Will a good faith peace process begin for Darfur and continue in South Sudan (where there are indications that the peace agreement is breaking down in part because the Bashir government refuses to withdraw its army from the South as required by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA))?

Ø Will Chinese, Russian and other arms exports to Khartoum continue?

Ø Will Beijing pressure Bashir to honour his previous ceasefire agreements and get him to disarm the janjaweed militias, which have caused so much human suffering, murder and destruction?

Ø Will Hu help UN Secretary General Ban to persuade Khartoum to stop bombing civilian targets in Darfur?

Ø Will the Sudanese government permit humanitarian agencies much needed unfettered access to all regions of Darfur?

Resolution 1769

• The specifics of UN SC resolution 1769 passed at the end of July in fact demonstrate how well Beijing continues to protect Khartoum:

Ø The hybrid UN/African Union force will have no authority to seize weapons from belligerents, thus probably making it impossible to control the janjaweed and other militias,

Ø There is no provision for sanctioning the government in Khartoum in the highly-probable event that it refuses to comply,

Ø The watered down command-and-control provisions will inevitably create problems between the African Union commander on the ground in Darfur and the UN Department of Peacekeeping in New York,

Ø Nothing is specified about containing the violence that has spread into Chad, where China is looking for oil, and the Central African Republic,

Ø Not a word is said about halting aerial assaults by Khartoum’s helicopter gunships and Antonov bombers,

Ø Tragically, the deployment of the peacekeepers is still to be very slow, with December 31, 2007 being the deadline for the transfer of authority from the AU to the AU/UN hybrid, although this itself is merely symbolic and unlikely in practice to save civilian lives in the meantime or quite probably for a considerable period thereafter, and

Ø The inability of the AU to solicit enough trained troops and civilian police for the hybrid force remains unaddressed. The AU Commission chair Alpha Konare this week indicated that he wants only Africans to be deployed and that they must be under African command.

Ø

Shaming Genocidaires

In my view, shaming the government of China over its partnership role in Sudan offers the best hope to save civilian lives in Darfur. How to proceed? Let me adapt here some earlier language of Prof. Eric Reeves to Canada:

The key task is to transfer knowledge to those presently unaware of China’s role in Sudan generally and Darfur specifically.

What happens, for example, if students and others demonstrate in front of the Chinese embassy in Ottawa or the consulate in Montreal, declaring with banners, placards, and T-shirts that China must be held accountable for its complicity in the Darfur genocide? What happens if such demonstrations are continuous, and grow, and take place outside China’s embassies in other countries? What happens if everywhere Chinese diplomats, politicians and business people travel they are confronted by those who insist on making it an occasion for highlighting China’s destructive role in Darfur?

To succeed, the campaign must be creative and focused. It must take advantage of every means offered through electronic communications. The government of China must be forced to see that there is a stark choice before it: either it uses its leverage effectively with Khartoum to improve and speed up the UN/AU deployment discussed above or it will be the target of the most powerful international shaming campaign in history.

The general lack of effective advocacy initiatives has not been lost on Khartoum’s génocidaires. Despite the enormous and consequential successes of the American-led divestment campaign, pressure must be ratcheted up even higher. Other European companies should follow the lead of Germany’s Siemens and Switzerland’s ABB Ltd; both have suspended operations in Sudan. Such ongoing loss of European commercial and capital investment certainly has the full attention of the Bashir regime.

The task is daunting but fully achieveable, given the moral passion and creative energies of the Darfur advocacy communities. All success to the campaigns!

Beijing Olympic Games

Turning to the Beijing Olympic Games now, I’ve been asked to add a word about what was happening in Athens recently, where some of us were calling for a shunning of the 2008 Beijing Olympics at the launch of the Global Human Rights Torch Relay. The relay will travel to about 100 cities during the next twelve months on five continents, urging the government of China to stop the systematic human rights abuses to Falun Gong practitioners, human rights lawyers (e.g. Gao Zhisheng) and to provide religious freedom for all citizens as stated in the Constitution of China.. You’re all welcome to join/support the ‘Run for Human Dignity!”

Any national government whose medical professionals are executing without any species of prior judicial proceeding members of an officially disapproved spiritual community, as has been occurring for more than half a decade across China to numerous Falun Gong practitioners, is self-evidently unsuited to host the Olympic Games in its capital city.

If agents of the same government are selling the vital organs-livers, kidneys etc-of such prisoners of conscience for high prices and often to organ tourists, the case for a games boycott or shunning by governments, spectators, prospective event sponsors and athletes becomes even more compelling under the Olympic Charter and a host of United Nations instruments dealing with dignity for all people.

I hasten to stress here that the Falun Gong community present in approximately seventy countries is not calling for a boycott or shunning of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The boycott effort is coming from others of us who are deeply worried about the worsening state of human rights in China generally.

Numerous kinds of Proof

The government of China has continuously denied that it is engaged in organ seizure activities, which David Matas has termed "a new form of evil on this planet". It has, however, not responded to the 33 kinds of evidence Matas and I have gathered in various parts of the world in our revised report available in 17 languages at organharvestinvestigation.net. It was not any of the 33 in isolation but the combination of them that led us to the chilling conclusion we reached.

Among the sources of proof and disproof we examined:

The waiting times for organ transplants in China are astonishingly short, days and weeks, contrasted with months and years in the rest of the world. Hospital websites in China boast short waits for all organs for those who can pay large sums.

Corruption is a major and continuing problem in China, large profits being made from transplants and the general lack of control. The prices charged foreigners vary from US$ 30,000 for corneas to 180,000 for liver/kidney combinations.

President Jiang Zemin, then leader of the government in China, decided in the summer of 1999 that the then estimated 70-100 million Falun Gong practitioners in the country posed a threat to his government. He declared a brutal war, which involved imprisonment, systematic torture and forced labour for thousands of practitioners. The government of China media demonization and dehumanization of Falun Gong practitioners across the country since mid-1999 appears to have exceeded what was directed at persons convicted of capital offences.

The government of China gave its military-the PLA-the authority to raise money privately. It is now heavily involved in organ transplants but operates outside the rules of the civilian health system. Transplants are performed in military hospitals and in civilian ones by military personnel.

Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested in huge numbers since mid-1999 and held without trial until they renounce their beliefs. Our report names more than three thousand Falun Gong practitioners who died as a result of torture; if a government is willing to murder large numbers of them through torture, it's easy to accept that it will do the same crime against humanity through organ seizures.

“Organ Donors”

The usual sources of organs for transplants in China-executed convicted prisoners, donors and brain dead persons-come nowhere near in numbers to explaining the rapidly rising number of transplants across the country since the persecution began and are the only other explanation for where the 'donors' come from.

In researching our report, Matas and I had persons calling hospitals and detention centres throughout China posing as family members of persons who needed organ transplants. In a wide variety of locations, those who were called asserted that Falun Gong practitioners (reputedly healthy because of their exercise regime) were the source of the organs. We have recordings and telephone bills for these calls.

We also interviewed the ex-wife of a surgeon from Sujiatun, who had said her husband personally removed the corneas from approximately 2000 anaesthetized Falun Gong prisoners Sujiatun hospital in Shenyang city in northeast China during the two year period before October, 2003. Her testimony was credible to us.

There have been two investigations independent from our own which have addressed the same questions we have addressed whether there is organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China one by Dr. Kirk Allison of the University of Minnesota, another by a European Parliament Vice- President, Edward McMillan-Scott. Both have come to the same conclusion we did. These independent investigations corroborate our conclusions.

The hardship a Games boycott would create for the affected athletes is enormous. The consequences for humanity, however, of having Olympic Games go ahead in the capital of a country where innocent Chinese citizens continue to be murdered for their vital organs are even greater. If the killing seizes across China, this particular call (my own) for a shunning or boycott will also cease.

Global Human Rights Torch Relay

The first flame was lit at the ceremony in Athens, Greece on August 9^th. As mentioned, the “Run for Human Dignity” will pass through more than 35 countries and 100 cities, received by rallies and concerts along the way. The torch relay will be a beacon of hope bringing improvement in human rights and awareness that the Olympic Games and crimes against humanity cannot co-exist.

The relay was initiated by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG). Key ambassadors and supporters for the HRTR are

• Baroness Caroline Cox of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom
• Senator Andrew Bartlett of the Australian Democrats
• US Congressmen Hon. Dana Rohrabacher and Hon. Thaddeus McCotter
• Taiwanese Legislator Lai Ching-Te
• Rabbi Dr.Reuven Bulka of Ottawa,
• Award-winning actor Michael Riley
• Gemini award winner Michael Mahonen
• President of Agir pour les droits de l'Homme Marie-Françoise Lamperti, Paris
• Olympic Silver Medalist Xiaomin Huang
• Winter Olympic Medalist Martins Rubenis

The Global Human Rights Torch Relay is, I understand, supported by the Australian Darfur Network, Canadian Students for Darfur, Network for Human Right in China (Denmark), International Society for Human Rights (Germany), Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting, Federation of Vietnamese Communities in Australia.

We welcome all individuals and organizations that are concerned about human rights abuses in China or related to the Chinese regime to join the Global Human Rights Torch Relay. All relay activities will be jointly organized by local human rights groups and individuals, and CIPFG delegations. For additional information or to register for the torch relay, please send an email to torch@cipfg.net.

Thank you.

Newsletter #1

The objectives of the Global Human Rights Torch Relay are to reveal the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) tyranny and stop human rights violations, with the theme that "Olympics and Crimes Against Humanity Cannot Co-exist in China." The human rights torch is a symbol of peace, justice and freedom. It has broken through many obstacles put in place by the CCP, and the first flame was lit on August 9, 2007 in Athens, Greece, the birthplace of the Olympics.

This event has been widely reported by the international media. Many people have approached us to inquire about the details and ways of participating. We would like to address this by providing the following information:

1. The Global Human Rights Torch Relay is a series of activities initiated by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) (www.cipfg.org). The coalition consists of over 350 government officials, lawyers, doctors, clergymen, and human rights activists from around the world. Through the torch relay activities, the CCP’s cruel eight-year persecution against the peaceful Falun Gong community will be exposed, with a focus on the illegal harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners’ organs that is currently being carried out in China.
   CIPFG is urging the CCP to end the persecution immediately and not to turn the 2008 Olympics into the Bloody Harvest Olympics. Olympics and crimes-against-humanity cannot co-exist in China.
2. After the first flame was lit in Athens, many international human rights organizations and individuals expressed their support. We welcome all those who have shown an interest and who have committed to participating for the entire route or part of it. Supporters will expose and condemn the CCP’ human rights violations in suppressing the Chinese people, especially those who are most vulnerable.
3. Many Mainland Chinese are also participating in the torch relay in their unique way, eager to pass on their wish of "Human rights wanted, not Olympic Games" to all corners in the world. So far, eight provinces have confirmed their participation. (For security reasons, the names of these provinces will not be announced.) Concrete plans are underway and will be announced in due course.
4. Relaying the human rights torch is a grand event that has never been done before in history. The extensive press coverage and community participation so far have been extraordinary and encouraging. As of August 12th, 35 countries and 128 cities across five continents have already made their commitment to receive the torch. The event will last for an entire year, or until the time when the persecution ends or the CCP collapses. The human rights torch will be relayed through the following countries in this order: Europe, Oceania, Africa, North America and Asia.
5. Method of relay: The Human Rights Torch Relay events will take place at a site that best describes the characteristics of the host city. At the ceremony, all those who participate will symbolically jog for a distance and pass on the torch. Between countries and cities, the torch will travel by plane, car, and any other suitable means. With the torch relay ceremony in Athens just completed, it is now on its way to its next stop. It will arrive in Germany on August 18. The first city in Germany that receives the torch will be Berlin.
   
6. In order to maximize participation, we are in the process of designing an online human rights torch relay website (http://www.humanrightstorch.org/) which is expected to be in full function within days. The new website will provide all the necessary details about the relay and welcome participants.

CIPFG

August 12, 2007

Human rights group lights torch for Beijing games boycott

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A woman, playing the role of a priestess, raises a torch during the lighting ceremony of a global human rights torch relay in Athens, August 9, 2007. Hundreds of human rights activists and spectators gathered in central Athens to launch the relay urging the boycott of next year's Beijing Olympics over what they said was China's dismal human rights record. REUTERS/Yiorgos Karahalis

Karolos Grohmann, Reuters - Published: Thursday, August 09, 2007

ATHENS (Reuters) - Hundreds of human rights activists from across the world gathered in central Athens on Thursday to launch a global torch relay urging the boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics over China's human rights record.

Beijing has been under fire for what groups say are extensive human rights violations, including against the spiritual group Falun Gong, ahead of next year's Games.

China classified Falun Gong as a cult and banned it in 1999. Since then the group has campaigned from abroad against what it says is brutal persecution of its followers in China.

Organizers of the event in the central Syntagma square, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), said Beijing was involved in systematic "organ harvesting" from jailed Falun Gong members and other dissidents.

"We want to put enough pressure on China to stop killing its people and selling livers and kidneys to people around the world," former Canadian junior foreign minister David Kilgour told Reuters.

Kilgour, co-author of a report on Chinese "organ harvesting," said the International Olympic Committee was turning a blind eye to violations of its own charter.

IOC President Jacques Rogge on Monday fended off criticism saying the Games were a force for good but were no panacea.

"That's garbage," said Kilgour. "Jacques Rogge should know what the Olympic charter states. It talks about human dignity."

The global human rights torch relay will stop over in 25 countries and more than 100 cities in Europe, Asia, North America and Australia, organizers said.

Among the speakers were former Olympic athletes, including the 2006 Olympics luge bronze medalist Martins Rubenis from Latvia.

"The Chinese Communist Party has not fulfilled the promise to adjust the situation of human rights," Rubenis said.

Beijing marked the one-year countdown to the Games on Wednesday with spectacular celebrations in Tiananmen Square.