Chronicle Harold (Halifax): China taking organs from prisoners, probe alleges

Body parts stolen from Falun Gong followers, say Canadian activists

By JIM BRONSKILL The Canadian Press

http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/514840.html

OTTAWA — July 12, 2006 - Calling it a crime against humanity, a new report says China is harvesting vital organs from devotees of the outlawed Falun Gong movement.

Hearts, kidneys, livers and corneas are removed from executed practitioners of the meditative regimen and sold for transplantation at hefty prices, sometimes to foreigners, concludes the report.

Winnipeg human rights lawyer David Matas and former Liberal cabinet minister David Kilgour, who undertook a two-month investigation, acknowledged Thursday their findings were almost too astonishing to comprehend.

"The very horror makes us reel back in disbelief," the report says. "But that disbelief does not mean that the allegations are untrue."

At a news conference, Matas called the practice a shocking "new form of evil."

"Who would have believed the Holocaust before it happened?"

Kilgour, former secretary of state for the Asia-Pacific region, said Canadians are among those who have travelled to China for illicit organs.

"It’s appalling," he said. "You don’t want to believe it."

The pair conducted the probe as volunteers at the request of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, a Washington-based organization with a branch in Ottawa.

In a statement, the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa dismissed the report as a "groundless and biased" Falun Gong smear effort based on "rumours and false allegations."

Kilgour and Matas insist their research was conducted independently. They were unsuccessful in obtaining visas to visit China to investigate.

Instead, they gathered testimony from witnesses in Canada, the United States, France and Australia, consulted the websites of Chinese transplantation centres, and studied transcripts of Mandarin conversations with doctors and other officials at hospitals and detention centres in China.

"We believe that there has been and continues today to be large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners," the report says.

It calls on the United Nations to determine if China is in violation of the UN protocol to prevent trafficking in persons, which bans organ removal.

Beth Berton-Hunter of Amnesty International Canada said the organization had asked the UN special rapporteur on torture to be admitted to China to investigate.

"Then we’d have a bit more of a broader point of view," she said. "We’re very concerned about the allegations, but we haven’t been able to verify them yet."

In July 1999, China’s Communist government outlawed Falun Gong, a practice of meditation and exercises with roots in traditional culture that had attracted millions.

Supporters say Beijing, seeing Falun Gong as a threat, has ordered thousands of followers detained and hundreds killed. China denies harming practitioners.

In March, China enacted legislation that took effect July 1 to ban human organ sales and require that donors give written permission for transplantation.

In its statement, the embassy said China has consistently abided by relevant World Health Organization principles prohibiting sale of human organs.

"It is very clear that Falun Gong’s rumour has ulterior political motives," the embassy said.

"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."