MEDIA RELEASE  

July 6, 2006

OTTAWA: David Matas, international human rights lawyer, and David Kilgour, former Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) for Canada, today released an independent report, following their two-month inquiry into allegations that vital organs are being seized from Falun Gong practitioners across China.

The report concludes:

“…the government of China and its agencies in numerous parts of the country, in particular hospitals but also detention centres and ‘people’s courts’, since 1999, have put to death a large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. Their vital organs, including hearts, kidneys, livers and corneas, were virtually simultaneously seized for sale at high prices, sometimes to foreigners, who normally face long waits for voluntary donations of such organs in their home countries.”

How many of the victims were first convicted of any substantive offence in a legitimate court the report does not answer because such data unavailable. However, one Beijing Falun Gong practitioner, now living in Europe, told the inquiry that she was arrested three times and spent a year in a labour camp but she was never taken before any court. She also reported during her imprisonment, that without explanation or cause, she was taken in leg irons and handcuffs for a thorough medical examination.

Witnesses were consulted in Canada, Australia, France and the United States, sometimes in personal interviews and sometimes by email. Among the most significant incriminating evidence, however, were certified translations of recorded conversations in Mandarin with doctors and other officials at hospitals and detention centres located in various parts of China. Transcripts of some of these conversations are included in the report.

Other important evidence:

• Translations of recent and continuing postings on number of websites at transplantation centres within China which were also important in convincing the inquiry that the only fair conclusion was that the organ harvesting is widespread and continuing.
• Testimony from the former wife of a surgeon in China who told the inquiry that he confessed to her that he removed the corneas from the eyes of approximately 2000 Falun Gong prisoners in 2002 and 2003.
• Testimony from Ms. Yuzhi Wang, now of the Vancouver region, who stated she spent most of her time in 2000 and 2001 in labour camps for being a Falun Gong practitioner. Suffering internal damage from beatings, she is convinced this is the only reason she did not become a “donor” and was able to leave China.

• Testimony from Xiaohua Wang, now of Montreal, who reported that in 2002, after spending two years in a forced labour camp working 16 hours daily with chemicals because of his belief in Falun Gong , he also received a comprehensive forced medical exam. Later, he was able to emigrate to Canada.
• Testimony from Ms. Na Gan, now of Toronto, who stated that she was beaten by police when she unfurled a Falun Gong “truthfulness-compassion-tolerance” banner in Tiananmen Square. As a result, her CCP membership and salary as a customs employee at the Beijing airport were revoked and she was sent to the local women’s labour camp. In mid-2001, she reported that only the Falun Gong members of the group had their blood, urine, and eyes examined at a nearby hospital. She too managed to leave China for Canada.

The following are some key recommendations in the report:

1. As organ harvesting is a crime against humanity, authorities in China should conduct a criminal investigation for possible prosecution.
2. Organizations-intergovernmental, governmental and voluntary-should take the allegations seriously and make their own determinations on whether or not they are true.
3. As the UN Protocol to prevent trafficking in persons bans the removal of organs, the UN should investigate whether China is in violation.
4. Foreign governments should ban the entry of Chinese doctors seeking training in organ transplantation and any doctor there known to be engaged in such work should be barred from visiting foreign countries permanently.
5. All countries should tighten their laws against organ trafficking and doctors should, for example, be required to report to their respective authorities any evidence that a patient has received an organ from a trafficked person abroad.
6. Governments should deny or revoke the passports of nationals who are travelling to China for organ transplants.
7. No governments should participate in any China-sponsored meeting or research on organ transplant. No private company should provide goods or services to any Chinese transplant program.

A full copy of the report can be obtained at:  

http://www.OrganHarvestInvestigation.net or http://investigation.go.saveinter.net

For further information, please contact

David Kilgour:  (613) 747-7854;                 

David Matas:     (204) 944-1831