Religious Persecution by China: A Horror Story, EP

Europe’s 20th century experience of genocide and the failure of political will to stop it still resonates today on the continent, with a hearing in the European Parliament recently reflecting on a particular 21st century barbarism: communist China’s massacre of prisoners of conscience for their transplant organs.

“This is morally devastating,” said Member of the European Parliament Tunne Kelam after hearing a number of panelists discuss the topic. “If we don’t take knowledge seriously about this practice, we have become morally and politically co-responsible.”
 
Gutmann was also in attendance at the panel. He provided a median estimate of 65,000 Falun Gong practitioners having been killed so that their organs could be removed and sold, since 1999. The actual number could be much higher.

Falun Gong is a popular Chinese spiritual practice that the communist regime began persecuting in 1999, after the number of adherents surpassed members of the Party.

Those in government in major Western countries appear to find disquieting the idea of confronting a communist regime growing daily in international clout, according to Gutmann and other speakers on Jan. 29.

  “A criminal will never admit that they are the criminal,” Ng said. “So in this case the criminal is the state and that differentiates organ harvesting in China from all other countries. That is why it’s so serious.”

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Organ Harvesting Raised at European Parliament Hearing

CLARIFICATION:
The December 6 hearing covered various topics, including China's rule of law, its leadership change, its international obligations, democracy, and organ transplants. The issue of organ harvesting in China was among the main topics.
 

NTD News, Brussels, Belgium - China’s organ transplant industry has grown rapidly over the past decade. But the source of organs used for transplants has remained controversial. That’s particularly after 2006, when allegations surfaced that state hospitals were killing persecuted Falun Gong practitioners for their organs.

The issue was raised on Thursday in Brussels, during a hearing of the European Parliament’s Human Rights subcommittee.

[Corinna Barbara Francis, researcher at Amnesty International]: 

“In other words, individuals in China have their organs harvested and in the process of that they die. So this is the issue that will be discussed further. There are many groups that these organs may be taken from, the Falun Gong being one of the main groups.” 

Similar hearings were held in the European Parliament in 2006 and 2009. The Chinese regime has since admitted that executed prisoners are the main source of organs. 

Independent investigations suggest they are not just prisoners, but prisoners of conscience, and many went through no legal conviction.

[Edward McMillan-Scott, Vice-President of the European Parliament]:

“I have met someone myself. His best friend died in prison. He disappeared one evening from the cell. When he next saw his friend’s body, it had holes in it in the prison hospital. He thought that some operation had been done. But obviously, what had happened was that he had been harvested for his organs.”

Canadian human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, David Matas, co-authored a book on the forced organ harvesting allegations. It includes dozens of pieces of data, and concludes that at least thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been killed for their organs.

The hearing, attended by EU officials, politicians and human rights advocates, called on the European Parliament to take concrete action to help end organ harvesting. 

[Leonidas Donskis, Member of the European Parliament]:

“We need to think about new legislation which will be exterritorial, which will be international, which will simply require individual responsibility of all people involved in these operations, in these absolutely criminal, illegal activities. So this would send a very strong message to China.” 

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