Howrah News Service ( www.howrah.org ), April 13, 2008
By RAMESH RAMACHANDRAN
http://howrah.org/india_news/9340.html
New Delhi, April 13: A new report from the World Organisation to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong says the Chinese Communist regime has intensified its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
This has opened one more front against the Chinese repression in Tibet with the Indian practitioners of Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) deciding to join the protests against the human rights violations in China.
The Indian Falun Gong practitioners have drawn up a series of peaceful events, including peaceful meditation, banner display and candle light. April 17, when Olympic torch arrives in India, will be observed as the Human Dignity Day.
The new persecution report, based on official documents from the Chinese authorities and reports from persecuted victims, says the Beijing Olympics has been used as a pretext to intensify the persecution of Falun Gong.
It says the "safe Olympics action" started in January 2008 singles out Falun Gong as the major target and 1,878 Falun Gong practitioners were illegally arrested from the end of 2007 to March 11, 2008.
It cites a document, entitled Operations Programme for Gulou Neighbourhood Olympic Security and Social Control, in which the first item of the "Critical List of People" singled out Falun Gong as a major category for suppression.
A former Canadian parliamentarian, Mr David Kilgour, who authored a similar report on the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in 2007, says harvesting of organs of Falun Gong practitioners continues to remain a serious problem.
"The problem continues to be very, very serious," Mr Kilgour told this newspaper from Canada. "Our report concluded that thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been killed without any form of trial for their organs."
The report authored by Mr Kilgour and a colleague Mr David Matas is entitled Bloody Harvest: Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China. Their study has been corroborated by independent researchers.
Mr Kilgour and Mr Matas�s report suggests Falun Gong practitioners and prisoners sentenced to death are the sole victims of organ harvesting (or the killing of innocents for their organs for transplant surgery).
Mr Kilgour is now a volunteer working on human rights issues. He visited India in 2007. "We have both been to India and met a number of respected persons, including two former Prime Ministers about the issue," Mr Kilgour added.
The Falun Gong began in 1992 as a blend of ancient Chinese spiritual and exercise traditions. It was banned in 1999 because of Communist ideological envy over its increasing popularity. Before their repression, the Falun Gong were more numerous than any other group, more numerous than the Communist Party itself. A number of human rights tribunals have all determined Falun Gong to be a form of religion.
The 2007 United States department of state report on international religious freedom cites foreign observers as suggesting at least half of the 2.5 lakh officially-recorded inmates in Chinese labour camps are Falun Gong adherents.
According to the New York-based Falun Dafa Information Centre, the "escalating maltreatment" is a direct result of efforts to "stamp out" Falun Gong prior to the summer Olympics in Beijing.