MEDIA RELEASE  

 

July 6, 2006

 

OTTAWA: David Matas, international human rights lawyer, and David Kilgour, former Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) for Canada, today released an independent report, following their two-month inquiry into allegations that vital organs are being seized from Falun Gong practitioners across China.

 

The report concludes:

¡°¡­the government of China and its agencies in numerous parts of the country, in particular hospitals but also detention centres and ¡®people¡¯s courts¡¯, since 1999, have put to death a large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. Their vital organs, including hearts, kidneys, livers and corneas, were virtually simultaneously seized for sale at high prices, sometimes to foreigners, who normally face long waits for voluntary donations of such organs in their home countries.¡±

 

How many of the victims were first convicted of any substantive offence in a legitimate court the report does not answer because such data unavailable. However, one Beijing Falun Gong practitioner, now living in Europe, told the inquiry that she was arrested three times and spent a year in a labour camp but she was never taken before any court. She also reported during her imprisonment, that without explanation or cause, she was taken in leg irons and handcuffs for a thorough medical examination.

 

Witnesses were consulted in Canada, Australia, France and the United States, sometimes in personal interviews and sometimes by email. Among the most significant incriminating evidence, however, were certified translations of recorded conversations in Mandarin with doctors and other officials at hospitals and detention centres located in various parts of China. Transcripts of some of these conversations are included in the report.

 

Other important evidence:

 


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The following are some key recommendations in the report:

 

  1. As organ harvesting is a crime against humanity, authorities in China should conduct a criminal investigation for possible prosecution.
  2. Organizations-intergovernmental, governmental and voluntary-should take the allegations seriously and make their own determinations on whether or not they are true.
  3. As the UN Protocol to prevent trafficking in persons bans the removal of organs, the UN should investigate whether China is in violation.
  4. Foreign governments should ban the entry of Chinese doctors seeking training in organ transplantation and any doctor there known to be engaged in such work should be barred from visiting foreign countries permanently.
  5. All countries should tighten their laws against organ trafficking and doctors should, for example, be required to report to their respective authorities any evidence that a patient has received an organ from a trafficked person abroad.
  6. Governments should deny or revoke the passports of nationals who are travelling to China for organ transplants.
  7. No governments should participate in any China-sponsored meeting or research on organ transplant. No private company should provide goods or services to any Chinese transplant program.

 

A full copy of the report can be obtained at:  

http://www.OrganHarvestInvestigation.net or http://investigation.go.saveinter.net

 

For further information, please contact

David Kilgour:  (613) 747-7854;                 

David Matas:     (204) 944-1831