By Cassidy Olivier, Merritt Herald - B.C., Canada
Aug 16 2006

Holding signs and handing out pamphlets, five Falun Gong practitioners led a silent protest outside of Merritt City Hall on Wednesday with a message that was as grim as the weather.

Under a grey sky, the group took the opportunity to inform passersby of the latest injustice upon their fellow practitioners by the Chinese government - the details of which read like a script for a horror movie.

“It is a new form of persecution,” said April Zhu, a Falun Gong practitioner from Vancouver. “[Hardly] anyone can believe it - it is too shocking.”

According to Zhu, the newest form of persecution handed out by China’s Communist government is the practice of harvesting organs from imprisoned Falun Gong followers.

The organs, which are deemed healthy because of their hosts’ holistic lifestyle, are marketed off in China’s booming transplant trade where a pair of new kidneys can go for $60,000.

Backed by a June 6 report authored by human rights lawyer David Matas and former M.P. David Kilgour that concluded the rumours of organ harvesting were true, Zhu and her fellow practitioners want to make sure that as many people as possible know what is happening.

Their stop in Merritt was just one of several planned this month as part of their provincial SOS National Car Tour to raise awareness about human rights abuse in China.

Previous stops had been Chilliwack and Abbotsford.

“We cannot standby and say nothing and be silent,” Zhu said. “It is our responsibility as a democratic society to condemn the Chinese government for what they are doing. We cannot accept it - it must be stopped as soon as possible.”

As part of their tour, the group plans to meet with local councils, MPs and MLAs in an effort to drum up support for their cause. They are calling on all levels of government to condemn the Chinese government’s persecution of Falun Gong, take effective measures to stop the organ harvesting and pressure the Communist state to open up its doors for inspection of all detention facilities holding Falun Gong practitioners.

“Falun Gong practitioners have no human rights in jail,” said Winston Liu of Calgary, a Falun Gong practitioner who had served three years in a prison for his faith. “They are even worse [off] than animals.”

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a traditional Chinese self-cultivation practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance. It was founded in northeastern China in 1992 and has an estimated following of 70 to 100 million.

The Chinese government banned it in 1999.