Canada/China Hand in Hand Olympic Countdown

MWC: Letter to the Editor by Clive Ansley, President of CIPFG

While China has recently been the target of severe criticism, not only because of its unsafe exports, but also for its appalling human rights record, I would like to draw your attention to an atrocity still little publicized in this country.

I refer to China's well-hidden eight-year persecution of Falun Gong -- an atrocity unmatched even by the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler. Mia Farrow and others have dubbed the 2008 Beijing Olympics the "Genocide Olympics" because of Beijing's support for the genocide being perpetrated in Darfur by the Government of Sudan. While I do not quarrel with Mia Farrow's stance, the supreme irony is that while she criticizes Beijing for the indirect support of genocide internationally, Beijing has been directly conducting a campaign of genocide against Falun Gong in China for the past eight years.

To date, three independent studies have determined that large numbers of Falun Gong prisoners are kept alive as unwilling organ donors, then killed on demand so that their organs may be harvested for international sale to wealthy patients in need of organ transplants. Killing on demand for organ theft is only one, though admittedly the most horrific, component of the genocide, which has been implemented against Falun Gong practitioners over the past eight years.

A massive propaganda machine supported by Communist Party controlled media, harsh internet censorship, a sham legal system, a network of prison and slave labour camps, abusive psychiatric hospitals, a Gestapo-like agency with unlimited power to oversee the persecution, and huge financial resources have enabled the Beijing Communist regime to continue its persecution unabated. These human rights violations are well documented by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights in China, Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada, the UN and others.

A 2006 Amnesty International report raised concerns that, "the official campaign of public vilification of Falun Gong in the official Chinese press has created a climate of hatred against Falun Gong practitioners, which may be encouraging acts of violence against them." This is but one of many eerie parallels to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. It is clear that China has not lived up to its promise to improve human rights when awarded the Olympics in 2001. In fact, the situation is substantially worse today than it was then.

To date, we have failed to persuade the Chinese regime to stop the persecution and free all prisoners of conscience; we therefore wish to focus the international Olympics spotlight on China's own genocide by calling for a boycott of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. We hope that the alternative global human rights torch relay that we launched on August 9 in Athens will provide the international community with the opportunity to join us in this Olympic boycott effort.
(http://www.humanrightstorch.org/)

When the horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald were exposed in 1945, decent people everywhere opined that the 1936 Olympics should never have been awarded to Berlin. "If only we had known!", said many. Today, though there has been a regrettable lack of mass publicity to date, the knowledge, the research and the evidence is available. This time the world will not be able to say, "We had no idea that this regime we were showering with glory was contemporaneously implementing genocide and mass murder for the purpose of organ theft."

It is most distressing that Canadian governmental bodies and other organizations are fully supporting the promotion of the 2008 Olympics right here in Canada through a series of cultural performances co-hosted by CCTV, the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) mouthpiece, and the CBC. Previous Olympics devolved into propaganda bonanzas for dictatorial hosts, such as the Nazis in 1936 and the Soviets in 1980, rather than promoting the universal celebration of peaceful competition and sport for people of all colours and creeds in accordance with the Olympic ideal.

Steven Spielberg announced recently that he's considering quitting his advisory role in the Olympics if Beijing doesn't soon address the issue of its support for the Sudanese government.

It's not too late to join the chorus of voices calling for a boycott. Beijing cannot possibly expect to freely continue with rampant political oppression, mass executions, forced abortions, illicit organ harvesting, religious persecution and a slew of other human rights abuses. Perhaps with our combined efforts we can bring the true Olympic spirit to the Chinese people.

Sincerely,

Clive Ansley
CIPFG President
The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong