Welland Tribune (Ontario)

September 9, 2006 Saturday

Falun Gong

Teams of Canadian practitioners of Falun Gong are touring the country trying
to raise awareness of a controversial report which found the Chinese
government is harvesting human organs from prisoners.

The report, by former MP David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas,
was released on July 6 and estimates as many as 41,500 organs transplanted
in China over the past six years may have come from Falun Gong
practitioners.

The Chinese government has denied the allegations and denounced the report
by the two Canadians.

Four Falun Gong practitioners from the Toronto area were in Niagara on
Friday and made a stop in front of Welland's city hall to hand out
information.

Allegations the People's Republic of China is forcibly harvesting human
organs from Falun Gong prisoners surfaced earlier this year.

"Many people did not believe these allegations, even some Falun Gong
practitioners," said Clement Sun, a practitioner of the exercise and
spiritual regimen.

Sun, who left his homeland eight years ago and last month received Canadian
citizenship, said the report by the "two Davids," as he called them, has
persuaded him.

Kilgour and Matas were asked to investigate the allegations by a
non-governmental organization registered in Washington, D.C., called the
Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong in China (CIPFG).

Practice of Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, was banned by the Chinese
government in 1999. At the time, it was estimated 70 million Chinese
citizens adhered to Falun Gong, which is an offshoot of a centuries old
system of breathing exercises called qigong, which is thought to improve
health and spiritual sensitivity.

Falung Gong was introduced in 1992 in by Li Hongzhi, who developed it from
qigong. Hongzhi has since fled China and taken up residence in the U.S.

Sun, 32-years-old, said he's been practising Falun Dong for four years. The
movement is non-political, said Sun, and tries to promote truth, tolerance
and compassion.

Falung Gong's growing popularity "alerted nervous (Chinese Communist) party
leaders ... to the growing popularity of the movement," says the report by
Kilgour and Matas.

The Chinese government started to crackdown on adherents, and large numbers
have been arrested and held.

In their conclusions, Kilgour and Matas say they "believe that there has
been and continues today to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling
Falun Gong practitioners."

Since 1999, the Chinese government and its agencies have put to death a
"large but unknown number" of Falun Gong prisoners and seized their vital
organs for sale, sometimes to foreigners, at high prices, says the report.

The report describes such organ harvesting as a "crime against humanity,"
and calls on the Chinese government to halt its practice.

The tour by Canadian followers of Falun Dong is intended to raise public
awareness and urge Canadian governments to take serious action to stop the
organ harvesting, said Sun. "To many, this whole thing might seem like
science fiction," he said. "It's like there's this supermarket with human
organs for sale. But is is true, it's happening today."

Two calls to the Chinese embassy in Ottawa were not returned Friday.

The Toronto teams have sample letters of support they are asking Canadians
to send to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and are asking people to sign an
on-line petition at www.falundafa.ca/infocentre/ petition.