FALUN GONG - SUMMARY REPORT

Summary of “Report into allegations of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China” written by David Matas and David Kilgour. July 2006.

Recently the Social Justice Network was given a report by a member of the National Council of Churches of Christ called “Report into allegations of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China” and asked to provide a summary document. The report is disturbing reading. It alleges that the Chinese Government is willingly using detained Falun Gong members to harvest their body parts for transplants. It sounds like Science Fiction and my initial reaction was this was perhaps an exaggerated story but the evidence seems compelling. I’ll let you decide.

The report was written by David Matas and David Kilgour. David Matas is an immigration, refugee and international human rights lawyers in private practice in Winnipeg Canada. David Kilgour is a former Crown prosecutor and former member of parliament and a former Secretary of State of the Government of Canada for the Asia Pacific Region.

While neither writers visited China (they were denied entry) they have gathered a large amount of evidence to suggest that the Government approved practice of harvesting body parts from detained Falun Gong followers exists and exists in a significant way. They have put forward the following evidence and state that while each piece of evidence does not prove conclusively that the practice occurs, as seen as a whole it suggests that this practice is unfortunately occurring.

Who are Falun Gong?

You may have heard of the group but no sure what exactly the group is. Put simply Falun Gong refers to a set of five meditations and spiritual teachings.

Falun Gong has been the focus of international controversy since the government of the People's Republic of China began a nationwide suppression of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. The Chinese government claims to have banned the group for its illegal activities. The Falun Gong claims the ban was a result of President of the People's Republic of China Jiang Zemin’s personal jealousy of the group’s popularity. The suppression of Falun Gong is considered a human rights violation mainly by western human rights groups and politicians.

The exact number of Falun Gong practitioners is not known. A figure of 70 million practitioners was quoted in a New York Times article published April 27, 1999. According to the article, this figure was the estimate of Chinese government. According to a statement posted on November 1, 1999 the membership estimated by Beijing was 2.1 million. A main Falun Gong website states a figure of 100 million practitioners worldwide, including 70 million in China.

• There have been some very strong policy statement by the Government of China and the Communist Party Of China calling for the persecution of the Falun Gong including physical persecution.
• There is continued evidence that a large number of deaths of Falun Gong are counted as suicide and cremated immediately to avoid the chance of autopsies.
• Since 1999, Falun Gong members who are arrested (and it is estimated to be over 830,000) and detained in labour camps are later subjected to weeks of “brainwashing”.
• After arrest and/or detention (often for attending demonstrations in Beijing) many members are returned to their communities but their families would be implicated in their Falun Gong activities and pressured to join in the effort to get their practitioners to renounce Falun Gong. Their workplace leaders, their co-workers, their local government leaders would be held responsible and penalized for the fact that these individuals had demonstrated.
• Many Falun gong members therefore decide not to divulge their identities and therefore remain in custody as anonymous people. They are however, then treated especially badly. As well they are moved around within the Chinese prison system.
• It is suggested that this anonymous group are the group that are primarily being used to harvest organs.
• At least 98% of the organs for transplants come from someone other than family donors. According to public records, there were 30,000 transplants in total done in China before 1999 and about 18,500 in the 6 year period 1994 to 1999 and then 41,500 transplants between 2000 and 2005.
• The increase in organ transplants in China parallels the increase in the persecution of the Falun Gong.
• There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that practitioners in detention are systemically blood tested. The practitioners themselves are not told the reason for this. Blood testing is a pre-requisite for organ transplants and the matching of organs.
• A number of family members of Falun Gong practitioners who died in detention reported seeing the corpses of their loved ones with surgical incisions and body parts missing.
• The report offers a number of recorded conversations of doctors and other administrators admitting that they use prisoners for organ harvesting.
• A number of hospitals which conduct organ transplants advertise that waiting times for operations are approximately one week. The average wait time in Canada is 32.5 months in 2003.
• The report comes to the conclusion that based on the evidence they have gathered, the practice of large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners exists.

Recommendations

• That this report be returned and the summary be forwarded to the National Council of Churches of Christ.
• That a letter expressing our grave concerns be sent to the Australian and Chinese Governments.

The Social Justice Network have forwarded the summary to the Australian Christian for publication.

posted by Sae @ Wednesday, February 14, 2007 Comments: 3