Chinese army harvesting parts from Falungong inmates ?
China's military is reportedly harvesting organs from prison inmates, mostly Falungong practitioners, for large scale transplants including for foreign recipients, a study said.
Canada's former Secretary of State for the Asia Pacific region David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas released a report Wednesday into such transplants after interviewing organ recipients in 30 countries.
They also interviewed Canadian hospital staff who subsequently cared for hundreds of patients after they underwent dubious transplant surgeries in China.
"The involvement of the People's Liberation Army in these transplants is widespread," Kilgour told a press conference.
Like many civilian hospitals in rural China, military hospitals turned to selling organs to make up for government funding cuts in the 1980s, the report states.
But military personnel could operate with much more secrecy, it added.
"Recipients often tell us that even when they receive transplants at civilian hospitals, those conducting the operation are military personnel," the report states.
It is the second report to be released by the pair, who in July published the results of a two-month investigation in which they implicated dozens of hospitals and jails throughout China in the transplant scandal.
Those allegations were vigorously denied by Chinese officials.
Hospitals in Canada's biggest cities, Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto meanwhile confirmed "a substantial number" of Canadians had traveled to China for suspicious organ transplants, Kilgour said.
"We're in the three digits, up over 100 (from Canada each year) and the trend is accelerating," Matas said.
To curb what they called a "disgusting form of evil," the pair publicly asked pharmaceutical firms to stop selling organ anti-rejection drugs to China.
They also urged countries to post travel advisories warning that organs from China may have been harvested from unwilling donors; asked states to cease offering follow-up care to patients who had shady organ transplants in China; and called on foreign doctors to cut ties with their Chinese counterparts suspected of such practices.
States should also enact legislation to ban their citizens from traveling to China for organ transplants from forced donors, although the study's authors admitted such prosecutions would be difficult to prove.
The US-based lobby group "The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falungong in China" had asked Kilgour and Matas to investigate claims by several of their members.
China banned the spiritual group in 1999 and has vehemently denied the allegations of organ harvesting, accusing the Falungong of spreading rumors in a bid to undermine the country's international relations and "social stability."
Kilgour and Matas admitted that many of the claims were second-hand, but said there was enough evidence to "paint a picture."
They described one man traveling to Shanghai in 2003 for a kidney transplant at the civilian No. 1 People's Hospital and his convalescence at No. 85 hospital of the People's Liberation Army.
Eight kidneys were tested, to find a match. Only the last "from an executed prisoner" was compatible, his military surgeon told him, according to the report.
Wang Xiaohua, a Falungong practitioner who now lives in Montreal, told reporters he "suffered inhumane persecution" at a Chinese labor camp where jailed Falungong practitioners, and not other prisoners, were systematically subjected to blood tests to match their organs with recipients.
In their previous report, Matas and Kilgour interviewed several Falungong members and the former wife of a surgeon who told her he had removed the corneas from some 2,000 anaesthetized Falungong prisoners in northeast China in the two years prior to October 2003.
They said they listened, with the help of certified interpreters, to more than 30 veiled calls made from Canada and the United States to Chinese officials who admitted to the surgeries.
Dozens more Chinese hospitals and jails were implicated in transcripts of new telephone calls, including one to an air force hospital in Chengdu City, in which an official said it would be "no problem" to get organs from young and healthy Falungong practitioners for a transplant.
Yahoo News
Guantánamo Bay: Five years of injustice
11 January marks five years since the US authorities first transported 'war on terror' detainees to the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Half a decade on and not a single detainee has yet been put on trial. Hundreds of Amnesty supporters demonstrated in orange boiler-suits to recreate the military camp at the steps of the US embassy in London to call for the closure of Guantánamo.
11 January 2007: five years in figures
No Guantánamo detainee has been convicted of a criminal offence by the USA in five years
3 men died at Guantánamo in June 2006 after apparent suicides. More than 40 suicide attempts in Guantánamo have been reported
Up to 17 detainees were under 18 years old when they were taken to Guantánamo; the youngest were as young as12 and 13 when they were arrested. To date, at least 4 are still detained. There was a 5th, but he was 1 of the 3 detainees who died
Only 10 Guantánamo detainees were charged. They were never tried, as the US Supreme Court ruled that to try them before military tribunals was illegal.
380 men have been released after years of unlawful detention without ever being charged or compensated
Nearly 400 detainees from 30 countries are still held at Guantánamo.
775 detainees have been held in Guantánamo since 11 January 2002. Their unlawful detention has forever affected their lives and those of their families
TOTAL= 5 YEARS OF HUMAN RIGHTS SCANDAL
CLOSE GUANTÁNAMO NOW!
* Find out more about Guantánamo Bay
* Sign our petition calling for the closure of Guantánamo
China Falungong inmates Guantánamo Bay Five years of injustice
Canada's former Secretary of State for the Asia Pacific region David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas released a report Wednesday into such transplants after interviewing organ recipients in 30 countries.
They also interviewed Canadian hospital staff who subsequently cared for hundreds of patients after they underwent dubious transplant surgeries in China.
"The involvement of the People's Liberation Army in these transplants is widespread," Kilgour told a press conference.
Like many civilian hospitals in rural China, military hospitals turned to selling organs to make up for government funding cuts in the 1980s, the report states.
But military personnel could operate with much more secrecy, it added.
"Recipients often tell us that even when they receive transplants at civilian hospitals, those conducting the operation are military personnel," the report states.
It is the second report to be released by the pair, who in July published the results of a two-month investigation in which they implicated dozens of hospitals and jails throughout China in the transplant scandal.
Those allegations were vigorously denied by Chinese officials.
Hospitals in Canada's biggest cities, Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto meanwhile confirmed "a substantial number" of Canadians had traveled to China for suspicious organ transplants, Kilgour said.
"We're in the three digits, up over 100 (from Canada each year) and the trend is accelerating," Matas said.
To curb what they called a "disgusting form of evil," the pair publicly asked pharmaceutical firms to stop selling organ anti-rejection drugs to China.
They also urged countries to post travel advisories warning that organs from China may have been harvested from unwilling donors; asked states to cease offering follow-up care to patients who had shady organ transplants in China; and called on foreign doctors to cut ties with their Chinese counterparts suspected of such practices.
States should also enact legislation to ban their citizens from traveling to China for organ transplants from forced donors, although the study's authors admitted such prosecutions would be difficult to prove.
The US-based lobby group "The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falungong in China" had asked Kilgour and Matas to investigate claims by several of their members.
China banned the spiritual group in 1999 and has vehemently denied the allegations of organ harvesting, accusing the Falungong of spreading rumors in a bid to undermine the country's international relations and "social stability."
Kilgour and Matas admitted that many of the claims were second-hand, but said there was enough evidence to "paint a picture."
They described one man traveling to Shanghai in 2003 for a kidney transplant at the civilian No. 1 People's Hospital and his convalescence at No. 85 hospital of the People's Liberation Army.
Eight kidneys were tested, to find a match. Only the last "from an executed prisoner" was compatible, his military surgeon told him, according to the report.
Wang Xiaohua, a Falungong practitioner who now lives in Montreal, told reporters he "suffered inhumane persecution" at a Chinese labor camp where jailed Falungong practitioners, and not other prisoners, were systematically subjected to blood tests to match their organs with recipients.
In their previous report, Matas and Kilgour interviewed several Falungong members and the former wife of a surgeon who told her he had removed the corneas from some 2,000 anaesthetized Falungong prisoners in northeast China in the two years prior to October 2003.
They said they listened, with the help of certified interpreters, to more than 30 veiled calls made from Canada and the United States to Chinese officials who admitted to the surgeries.
Dozens more Chinese hospitals and jails were implicated in transcripts of new telephone calls, including one to an air force hospital in Chengdu City, in which an official said it would be "no problem" to get organs from young and healthy Falungong practitioners for a transplant.
Yahoo News
Guantánamo Bay: Five years of injustice
11 January marks five years since the US authorities first transported 'war on terror' detainees to the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Half a decade on and not a single detainee has yet been put on trial. Hundreds of Amnesty supporters demonstrated in orange boiler-suits to recreate the military camp at the steps of the US embassy in London to call for the closure of Guantánamo.
11 January 2007: five years in figures
No Guantánamo detainee has been convicted of a criminal offence by the USA in five years
3 men died at Guantánamo in June 2006 after apparent suicides. More than 40 suicide attempts in Guantánamo have been reported
Up to 17 detainees were under 18 years old when they were taken to Guantánamo; the youngest were as young as12 and 13 when they were arrested. To date, at least 4 are still detained. There was a 5th, but he was 1 of the 3 detainees who died
Only 10 Guantánamo detainees were charged. They were never tried, as the US Supreme Court ruled that to try them before military tribunals was illegal.
380 men have been released after years of unlawful detention without ever being charged or compensated
Nearly 400 detainees from 30 countries are still held at Guantánamo.
775 detainees have been held in Guantánamo since 11 January 2002. Their unlawful detention has forever affected their lives and those of their families
TOTAL= 5 YEARS OF HUMAN RIGHTS SCANDAL
CLOSE GUANTÁNAMO NOW!
* Find out more about Guantánamo Bay
* Sign our petition calling for the closure of Guantánamo
China Falungong inmates Guantánamo Bay Five years of injustice
Labels: News - International
posted by Ah Yun Wong at
6:45 PM
3 Comments:
Linken, the Falun Gong propaganda David Kilgour’s promoting has been discredited by multiple undercover investigations.
US government and Chinese dissident investigations:
1) http://www.usembassy.it/pdf/other/RL33437.pdf (section CRS-7)
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=April&x=20060416141157uhyggep0.5443231&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html
2) http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060806_1.htm
http://www.cicus.org/news/newsdetail.php?id=6492
3) http://crc.gov.my/clinicalTrial/documents/Proposal/TCM_Stroke%20TrialProtocol%20synopsis.pdf (page 3)
As you can see, the hospital Falun Gong accused is partly owned by a Malaysian health care company and is subject to oversight beyond Chinese authority.
Thanks for dropping by..
I think there's more than a grain of truth to this. I rather prefer not to be true.
That’s not to say China is perfect and there’s no problem or abuse, of course.
While China’s human rights record should be examined, fabricating charges and writing allegory of “Schindler’s List” is not the way.
In addition to being contradicted by secret investigations inside China, David Kilgour’s Falun Gong report was reviewd and discredited by congressional researchers.
In “The Collateral of Suppression”, a report critical of China written for Senator Dianne Feinstein, member of US Congressional Executive Committee on China (CECC), congressional researchers Emma Ashburn
and Thomas Lum were quoted:
“Emma Ashburn, a research associate at the Congressional-Executive Committee on China (CECC), said that the Matas-Kilgour report really “offered nothing new” in terms of evidence on the matter of organ harvesting. The evidence they did collect, namely the phone calls and testimonies, were dubious in their objectivity.
Specialist in Asian Affairs at the Congressional Research Service, Thomas Lum, noted that the evidence could have easily been distorted. The individuals calling the hospitals were all affiliated with FLG, and Lum said that it is unlikely for doctors and officials working for the state to casually divulge such sensitive and damaging information so easily.
Moreover, Lum’s efforts to contact both the Chinese journalist and doctor’s wife have been fruitless, as FLG members direct all communications toward these individuals and they often do not respond. Harry Wu, a longtime political activist known for his hardline anti-PRC views, announced on August 9, 2006 that he would challenge the allegations made by FLG about targeted organ harvesting, especially the claim about the Sujiatun concentration camp.
About the report, the South China Morning Post reports, “Mr. Wu, who has spent 15 years gathering evidence on the harvesting of organs from executed Chinese prisoners, said the information was based on the testimony of two witnesses, neither of whom had first-hand information. He believed the reports were fabricated.” Wu had tried to follow up with the witnesses just as Lum had—to the same futility. In the face of these criticisms, including from even Wu, who formerly held friendly relations with FLG, all things considered the allegations FLG has made about a targeted campaign of state-sponsored genocide are most likely untrue.”
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