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Friday, August 18, 2006

Olympic boycott call over organ claims

Update: Former MP David Kilgour and Edward McMillan-Scott, VP of the European Parliament, were both visiting Australia this week to bring awareness to a Report on allegations of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China and targeting the Falun Gong. Under these circumstances, both of them have called for a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Foreign Affairs even went as far as asking the Chinese embassy to allow an investigation on organ harvesting in China. They have not been turned down yet. Investigators including the UN are anxious to dig deeper into this affair but there is not much time left as the Falun Gong are being killed like flies by the CCP, who are on a mission to wipe them out the face of the earth before the Games. Tension is high in Beijing over this report exposing evidence that amounts to genocide. It is clear that extra forces are deployed to counteract and discredit the report. For example, an extensive anti-report propaganda campaign orchestrated by the CCP pre-empted a Forum in Sydney focusing on the Kilgour-Matas report. And in Canada all Members of Parliament have received the July 26 Statement from the Chinese Embassy criticizing the report and attacking Falun Gong while practitioners are currently touring the country and meeting with these VIPs across Canada. Nevertheless, they are willing to listen to what resembles a horror show straight out of Hollywood, but sadly enough it is called reality in China.
Read an article from the Australian on that topic at the end and see other great reports from the Age, ABC and SMH.

The Age: August 16, 2006 – A high-level European official says there's clear evidence China is harvesting the organs of dissidents and has urged Australia to boycott the Beijing Olympics unless China ends what amounts to genocide.

EU parliament vice president Edward McMillan-Scott and former Canadian minister David Kilgour, who are in Australia, claim China is killing thousands of members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

Falun Gong was banned by the Chinese government in 1999 and members claim they have been persecuted by Beijing.

A report by the men says there is clear evidence that organs have been taken from thousands of Falun Gong members detained in Chinese jails.

It details how organs and tissue are harvested and sold, in a form of state-sanctioned murder.

"I regret to say I am convinced this is a widespread practice in China," Mr McMillan-Scott said on Wednesday.

"This amounts in my view to genocide."

Chinese woman Hong Chen told how she had been persecuted for her involvement with Falun Gong.

Through a translator, Ms Chen said she had been held in a detention camp in northwest China.

"We were forced to work 15 to 20 hours a day, very harsh, physical work," she said.

Ms Chen spoke of a woman who was transferred to her camp and showed signs of torture.

"The middle of both of her hands were marked with black - burn marks ... the reason was electric shock treatment to her hands and feet," she said.

The report estimates there were 41,500 involuntary organ transplants in China in the six year period between 2000 and 2005.

The men are in Australia as part of a world "awareness" tour, saying they want countries to use the 2008 Beijing Olympics as leverage to force China to stop the killing.

"If it doesn't stop very, very quickly I would hope a lot of countries, including Australia, would call for a boycott of the Olympic Games in Beijing," Mr Kilgour said.

"We conclude this is going on on a large scale - it's got to stop.

"The window of opportunity is the Olympic Games."

The government appeared reluctant to acknowledge the senior politicians on their visit to Canberra on Wednesday.

Falun Gong claims Foreign Minister Alexander Downer refused to meet the two men.

Mr Downer was unavailable for comment.

In parliament, Speaker David Hawker also refused to recognise the dignitaries despite their presence being called to his attention.

The Australian (Australia): MPs 'heavied' by China Rick Wallace

August 17, 2006 Thursday - CHINA has been accused of strong-arming Australian MPs into ignoring ''ghastly'' allegations that Falun Gong prisoners are slaughtered for their organs.

China's consul-general in Melbourne, Liang Shugen, has written to almost all Victorian MPs scorning a meeting called by Liberal backbencher Victor Perton on the claims. Mr Perton accused the diplomat of ''outrageous interference'' in pressuring MPs to not attend the meeting, which will hear from a former Canadian MP who produced a report on the allegations.

The report, by David Kilgour and Canadian immigration lawyer David Matas, accuses China of killing Falun Gong prisoners and selling hearts, kidneys, livers and corneas to foreigners.


Joan's letter was published in the Ottawa Citizen:

Boycott might work

Re: Games boycott won't force China to reform, Aug. 25 by Joan Quain

August 29, 2006 The idea of the boycott is not to impose "western standards" on China, but to force Beijing to halt the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and the illegal harvesting of their organs. If that happens, it's highly likely the Christians, Tibetans, Uighers and others who are being persecuted in China will benefit as well.

It's a travesty that China, with its abysmal human rights record, was given the honour of hosting the Olympics in the first place. Beijing craves legitimacy almost as much as it craves power, which is saying a lot, so a boycott or a threat to relocate the Games to another more deserving country might just prompt them to improve. If the Olympics can be used as leverage to force this brutal dictatorship to stop torturing and killing large numbers of its own citizens, let's give it all we've got.


Related Articles and links to this post: here and here

National Post: China's bloody harvest

SMH: Call to UN to probe Falun Gong genocide claims

ABC (Au) Canadian activist defends claims of killings in China

ABC (Au): Activists accuse China of killing Falun Gong members for organs

Olympic Boycott Needed to Stop Organ Crimes, Says Rabbi

Take your Olympic torch and snuff it



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