|
Taiwan condemns China's
organ harvesting
2006/10/14
TAIPEI, CNA
Taiwan
condemns in the strongest possible terms China's harvesting of human
organs from executed Falun Gong practitioners, Mainland Affairs
Council
(MAC) Chairman Joseph Wu said yesterday.
Taiwan is
also gravely concerned about prevalent infringements upon human
rights
across China and the development of related situations, Wu said when
he met with three human rights activists from Canada and the United
States.
Wu met with David Kilgour, a former Canadian secretary of
state for
Asia-Pacific and Latin America, and David Matas, an
international human
rights lawyer, who co authored the Report into
Allegations of Organ
Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China,
and Wang Wenyi, a China
born pathologist who became famous last April
when she created a scene by
shouting at visiting Chinese President Hu
Jintao and his American host
George W. Bush during a White House
welcoming ceremony. Wu said Taiwan is
not only concerned about organ
harvesting in China but is also worried about
other human rights
issues there, such as the shooting of Tibetans by Chinese
paramilitary
police, arrests of human rights lawyers and a purge of Muslims
and
Christians.
For his part, Kilgour, who has addressed the United
Nations and the
U.S.Congress about religious freedom and China's organ
harvesting, said he
and Matas had tried to enter China in May to
verify the factuality of the
claims contained in their report, but
were denied entrance by the Beijing
authorities.
Even more
ridiculous was that Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhicheng, who
invited Matas and Kilgour to visit China to compile their report, was
arrested and indicted by the Chinese authorities on charges of
"sedition to
overthrow the government" recently, Kilgour said, adding
that Gao was only
calling for the Chinese authorities to uphold
freedom, human rights and rule
of law in China. Kilgour said Beijing
has totally denied the accusations of
organ harvesting from executed
Falun Gong practitioners because China is
preparing to host the 2008
Olympic Games. Ironically, he said, if people
search the Google search
engine for China's denial by typing in the keywords
"China denied, "
they will get more than 8.2 million entries.
For his part, Matas
said that while harvesting organs is reportedly guided
by the Chinese
government, demands for the organs come from around the
world,
including Taiwan.
To cease this practice, Matas said, it must be
done from the justice side
and from the demand side as well. Matas
said he is glad that Taiwan has been
active in this regard.
Matas said he hopes that Taiwan will ban organ exchanges with
China and ban
organ transplants using organs from China. He expressed
hope that the Taiwan
authorities will warn Taiwan people from
traveling to China for organ
transplants while encouraging Taiwan
people to donate their organs to help
cut demand for Chinese organs.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/detail.asp?ID=92742&GRP=B
|