By Cindy Chan
Epoch Times Ottawa Staff
Feb 01, 2007
"We believe that there has been and continues today to be large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners," conclude the Canadian authors of a groundbreaking report on organ harvesting in China, in its revised version introduced in Ottawa on Jan. 31.
After releasing their original report on July 6, 2006, authors David Matas, an international human rights lawyer, and David Kilgour, the former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, have travelled to almost 30 countries to conduct further research and publicize their findings.
They've received many comments, some criticism, and a great deal of additional evidence since publishing the report, Matas said at a press conference on Parliament Hill. They've also been in contact with many witnesses, he added. The new report, entitled Bloody Harvest, presents an "even more compelling case for our conclusions."
Matas said the new report aims to answer criticism levelled against the original report and present new information. It will also produce a more analytical framework to the discussion, he said.
More important, Matas added, is work to stop organ harvesting from happening by putting precautionary and preventive measures in place.
"These are not in place in China, nor regrettably around the world," he said, where the "basic main source of demand for this ghoulish product" exists.
The 65-page report, over 20 pages longer than the original, addresses 33 topics, 16 of which are new.
The new report sheds light on the state of health and military financing in China. Both rely on money made from illegal organ transplants to make up for budget shortfalls, says the report.
The report also addresses how foreign states fund citizens who go to China for transplants. The report contains interviews with organ recipients from various countries and discusses the treatment of Chinese death-row prisoners.
Details of new undercover phone calls to hospitals in China where hospital staff incriminate themselves are also included. There is also more evidence to indicate there are large numbers of detained Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to name themselves and then just disappear.
The report cites 41,500 unexplained organ transplants from 2000 to 2005�the 6-year period since the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999�that do not come from convicted executed prisoners, the brain-dead, or family donors.