Boycott Beijing Games,
Canada urged
Use 'whatever pulpit we have' to stop alleged organ harvesting, critics say
Shelley Page
The Ottawa Citizen
Monday, August 21, 2006
CREDIT: Greg Baker, The Associated Press
Labourers work on the China National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics. Rabbi Reuven
Bulka is calling for a boycott of the Games.
Canada and other democratic countries should boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics
if China does not stop harvesting organs from dissidents, say a former Liberal
cabinet minister and a prominent Ottawa rabbi.
"We're going to use whatever bully pulpit we have -- spiritual, moral or
political -- to cease this horrible practice, including calling for a boycott of
the Olympics in 2008 if there is no progress on this issue," Rabbi Reuven Bulka
told the annual congress of the World Society of Cardio-Thoracic Surgeons during
a panel discussion on organ donation in Ottawa yesterday.
Rabbi Bulka, a member of the Canadian Council for Donation and Transplantation,
which advises deputy ministers of health, said the push needs to happen at a
"governmental level."
"If this doesn't stop, we're not going to send a team," he said, in response to
a question from a Falun Gong practitioner. "And if enough countries don't send a
team, then maybe there won't be an Olympics. And that is the ultimate threat."
Rabbi Bulka's controversial remarks come just days after similar remarks were
made in Australia by former Liberal cabinet minister David Kilgour, who is
visiting Australia and New Zealand to call for an international investigation
into the alleged sale of organs harvested from Falun Gong dissidents, and to
publicize his recent report into those allegations.
"We have not called for a boycott in our recommendations, but if it doesn't stop
very, very quickly I would hope a lot of countries, including Australia, would
call for a boycott of the Olympic Games in Beijing," Mr. Kilgour said.
Mr. Kilgour, who also sat as an independent MP, said last week in Australia that
the upcoming Games are a "window of opportunity" to force China to discuss the
killings of dissidents for organs.
Last month, Stephen Harper's Conservative government said it planned to
investigate allegations in the Kilgour report, while China denied the
allegations and denounced the report.
Mr. Kilgour was invited to Australia and New Zealand by Falun Gong groups in
that region.
He is accompanied by Edward McMillan-Scott, vice-president of the European
Parliament, and together they are trying to encourage support for an
international inquiry into the issue.
Mr. Kilgour's report, released last month and prepared with international human
rights lawyer David Matas, was conducted following a request by Falun Gong
groups to look into the matter.
The report alleges that China has put to death "a large but unknown number of
Falun Gong prisoners of conscience" since 1999 and sold their organs -- hearts,
kidneys, livers, corneas -- at high prices to foreigners.
The information in the report is largely circumstantial.
While it does not provide conclusive proof that dissidents' organs are being
harvested, it documents a troubling and unexplained rise in organ transplants
and the sale of organs to foreigners.
The report provides an Internet link to the China International Organ Transplant
Centre in Shenyang, China, which details the costs of transplants and caters to
English, Japanese and Russian clients.
The centre charges $62,000 U.S. for a kidney transplant, while a liver
transplant costs up to $130,000.
The report also includes transcripts of recorded conversations in Mandarin with
hospital and detention centre officials who admitted they had organs available
for transplant from Falun Gong practitioners, and features an interview with the
wife of a surgeon who routinely harvested corneas from Falun Gong practitioners
for transplant.
The report estimates there were 41,500 involuntary organ transplants in China
between 2000 and 2005 and questions where these organs came from.
Since the Chinese government banned Falun Gong in 1999, and rounded up its
members, accusing them of anti-government activities, the number of kidney
transplants has tripled, while liver transplants have increased from 135 in 1998
to more than 4,000 in 2005.
In March, China's Ministry of Health issued regulations explicitly banning the
sale of organs and tightening approval standards for transplants.
The Chinese Embassy has called the Kilgour investigation a "so-called
independent investigation report made by a few Canadians based on rumours and
false allegations (that) is groundless and biased.
"We do believe that lies are always lame, and will never become the truth even
if being repeated 1,000 times. We hope that the Canadian people will not be
deceived by the disguise of the Falun Gong, and more people will be aware of the
nature of 'Falun Gong' as an evil cult."
In July, China said it has "consistently abided by" the guiding principles of
the World Health Organization, which prohibit the sale of human organs and
require the written consent of donors beforehand.
The Chinese government said it has also "explicitly banned" the sale of organs.
In Ottawa, meanwhile, Rabbi Bulka urged democratic countries to act.
"Someone needs a heart so they kill someone and take their heart? That's the
most offensive thing anyone can imagine."
He invoked the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics to protest the
Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.
"You remember what happened with Afghanistan and Russia? You sometimes have to
use the muscle you have. The only way we can get them to stop is by
threatening."
© The Ottawa Citizen 2006