Thursday, August 23, 2012
Atrocity: Behind the Headlines in China
Call for investigations by media and governments into organ harvesting in China.
The trial of Gu Kailai, wife of ousted Bo Xilai, the murder of
British businessman Neil Heywood last Nov., former police chief Wang
Lijun taking refuge in the American Consulate in Chengdu in February,
and the fall from grace of Bo Xilai in March, stripped of his powers and
investigated for disciplinary violations—all seem opaque. The motives
of the main players are murky.
“The real reason Heywood was murdered was because of his involvement in organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners and the export of their bodies to be used in body exhibitions,” said Terri Wu, representing the Falun Dafa Association of Washington, D.C.
Wu based her conclusion on information from an Epoch Times’ source reported on August 8 in the article, The Real Reason Gu Kailai Murdered UK Businessman Neil Heywood. The source said that Heywood was involved with Bo and Gu in the business of organ harvesting in Liaoning, and had begun to tell people about their involvement.
“The real reason Heywood was murdered was because of his involvement in organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners and the export of their bodies to be used in body exhibitions,” said Terri Wu, representing the Falun Dafa Association of Washington, D.C.
Wu based her conclusion on information from an Epoch Times’ source reported on August 8 in the article, The Real Reason Gu Kailai Murdered UK Businessman Neil Heywood. The source said that Heywood was involved with Bo and Gu in the business of organ harvesting in Liaoning, and had begun to tell people about their involvement.
Gu Kailai Trial in China Seen as Political Opera
Commentators of the Gu Kailai murder trial
sentencing say the whole thing looked staged.
The Gu Kailai trial has been regarded as the most important show trial in China since the sentencing of the “Gang of Four”—a group tried as traitors, including Mao Zedong’s widow—at the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1981.
Analysts said the outcome of the Gu trial was predetermined, with the judges and others acting out a pre-written script.
The Gu Kailai trial has been regarded as the most important show trial in China since the sentencing of the “Gang of Four”—a group tried as traitors, including Mao Zedong’s widow—at the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1981.
Analysts said the outcome of the Gu trial was predetermined, with the judges and others acting out a pre-written script.
More: The Epoch Times
Canadian Reporter Used as Spy for China
Reporter and author Mark Bourrie quit his job at
Xinhua after repeated requests to carry out spying assignments for the
Chinese communist regime.
Chinese defector Chen Yonglin, who held a senior diplomatic post for
the regime in Australia, told The Epoch Times last year that Xinhua
reporters are still tasked with espionage duties.
“They play the role of a spy because Xinhua is actually an outreach organ of the CCP’s intelligence agencies. The nature of their work means they must use all means to infiltrate and obtain intelligence,” he said.
It’s a fact repeated in a 2005 report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which gained insight into Xinhua’s operations through former staff.
RSF detailed Xinhua’s lead role controlling information in China, exercising authority over censorship and propaganda directly under the control of the Propaganda Department.
“Xinhua is de facto run by the Propaganda Department. The agency gets its editorial line from this organ of the CCP and sticks to it slavishly,” reads the report.
Bourrie is particularly concerned about how intelligence gathered on Chinese dissidents like Tibetan activists and Falun Gong adherents is being used.
“When they go to something like a two-day conference on Tibet and film everything and transcribe everything, that is not going to a special publication—that is going to Chinese intelligence,” he said.
“They play the role of a spy because Xinhua is actually an outreach organ of the CCP’s intelligence agencies. The nature of their work means they must use all means to infiltrate and obtain intelligence,” he said.
It’s a fact repeated in a 2005 report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which gained insight into Xinhua’s operations through former staff.
RSF detailed Xinhua’s lead role controlling information in China, exercising authority over censorship and propaganda directly under the control of the Propaganda Department.
“Xinhua is de facto run by the Propaganda Department. The agency gets its editorial line from this organ of the CCP and sticks to it slavishly,” reads the report.
Bourrie is particularly concerned about how intelligence gathered on Chinese dissidents like Tibetan activists and Falun Gong adherents is being used.
“When they go to something like a two-day conference on Tibet and film everything and transcribe everything, that is not going to a special publication—that is going to Chinese intelligence,” he said.
Bourrie refused requests from Xinhua to collect the names of all
present at Falun Gong press conferences, but Lucy Zhou, a spokesperson
for the group in Ottawa, said it isn’t unusual for other Xinhua staff,
including Zhang, to collect names and take an unusual number of close-up
pictures at protests.
“It is very threatening to the practitioners who are protesting,” she said.
“When practitioners go back to China they can be arrested right away because of this information that they collected. Sure we can say the freelance photographer was just doing their job, but because Xinhua was behind it, it was beyond the normal work journalists do,” she said.
Bourrie said he learned that when covering dissident events, he should focus on the local spokespeople who were already well-known to the regime and not risk the safety of others by including them in his reports.
“It is very threatening to the practitioners who are protesting,” she said.
“When practitioners go back to China they can be arrested right away because of this information that they collected. Sure we can say the freelance photographer was just doing their job, but because Xinhua was behind it, it was beyond the normal work journalists do,” she said.
Bourrie said he learned that when covering dissident events, he should focus on the local spokespeople who were already well-known to the regime and not risk the safety of others by including them in his reports.
More at the Epoch Times
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
China's skewed reality: Peter Worthington
Brutal policies acceptable if they advance Beijing’s interest
What is well established is that some prisoners on death row — China is the world’s leading executioner, with something like 47 crimes warranting the death penalty — are kept around until there’s a demand for a heart, lung, liver, cornea or whatever, and then the execution takes place so the customer get a fresh body part.Macabre enough with criminals, but there are also reports of Falun Gong dissidents being imprisoned until their body parts can be sold.
Former cabinet minister David Kilgour and Winnipeg human rights lawyer David Matas have relentlessly investigated China’s organ “harvesting” program.
Their report concludes: “There has been, and continues today to be, large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners.”
This is denied by Beijing, despite first-hand evidence to the contrary.
Falun Gong is a discipline that combines meditation, gentle exercising, truthfulness, compassion and tolerance to gain spiritual enlightenment. Until it was repressed, Falun Gong was becoming more popular in China than the Communist Party — something intolerable for Beijing.
More: Ottawa Sun
Chinese Doctor Admits to Falun Gong Organ Harvest
After
surrendering to central Party authorities, Wang has been under
investigation, was purged from the Party, and is due to be tried for
treason.
More: The Epoch Times
‘Free China’ at the Ottawa International Film Festival
The award-winning movie Free China describes the persecution of Falun Gong in China by profiling the arrest and incarceration of two adherents: Jennifer Zeng and Charles Lee.
More: The Epoch Times
Party Head at Beijing Daily Shunted After Leaders Meeting
The Party secretary of the Beijing Daily was ousted as political payback after undermining the leadership earlier this year.
More: The Epoch Times
Chinese Hospital a Site for Jailing and Killing, Says Source
A source says that two hospitals in China work with labor camps to extract organs from prisoners of conscience, particularly Falun Gong detainees.
More: The Epoch Times
Urgent Call for Investigation of Live Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners
| News wire: 20 August 2012-Falun Gong practitioners in the Greater Washington Area
are calling for an independent international investigation into China's
labor camps and prisons regarding organ harvesting from Falun Gong
practitioners and the sale of their dead bodies. We request that the
international society, governments and media demand that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) open its labor camps, prisons and affiliated facilities for independent investigation. Media reports of the recent trial of Bo Gu Kailai's murder of Neil Heywood suggest that the real reason Heywood was murdered was because of his involvement in organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners and the export of their bodies to be used in body exhibitions. The reports allege he was killed because he had begun to talk about it. Chinese authorities do not want that information public and that is why they put on a show trial, to cover up the truth. Three months after Wang Lijun, the former police chief of Chongqing City, fled to the U.S. consulate in Beijing, the State Department released its 2011 Human Rights Country Report. In the report, it mentioned organ harvesting for the first time: "In response to allegations that the organs of executed prisoners were harvested for transplant purposes, Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu in 2009 stated that inmates are not a proper source for human organs, and prisoners must give written consent for their organs to be removed. Overseas and domestic media and advocacy groups continued to report instances of organ harvesting, particularly from Falun Gong practitioners and Uighurs." In June 2011, the U.S. government revised the DS-160 form for non-immigrant visa application. A new question was included in the form, asking "have you ever been directly involved in the coercive transplantation of human organs or bodily tissue?" At this year's annual July 20 rally of Falun Gong practitioners, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said: "Falun Gong adherents have been systematically arrested, tortured, sent to forced labor camps for 're-education,' placed in mental institutions for brainwashing, and subjected to organ harvesting." Similarly, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, Congressman Chris Smith, Congressman Sam Farr, Katrina Lantos Swett, chairman of the United Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and Lantos Foundation of Human Rights and Justice, also raised the concerns of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners. In March 2006, when the Epoch Times Chinese language editions first reported illegal organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners, it detailed the blood tests and physical examinations many Falun Gong practitioners experienced in prisons and labor camps. On one hand, the Chinese communist regime tortures them brutally in order to coerce them to abandon their belief, while on the other hand, the regime gives them very specific physical examinations and blood tests. It is certainly not concerned with Falun Gong practitioners' health. Organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners started soon after the persecution against the peaceful exercise and meditation practice began. Canadians David Kilgour, former Canadian secretary of state (Asia-Pacific) and crown prosecutor; and David Matas, an international human rights lawyer, investigated the allegations of organ harvesting in 2006 and quickly published a report, "Bloody Harvest" July 2006, which was later published as a book. The senior statesmen found that between 2000 and 2005, 41,500 transplants took place in China. They concluded the most likely source of the organs was Falun Gong practitioners. Many may think that live organ harvesting is too brutal to believe. Yet, organ trafficking has existed for many years in the black market in China. It started from human trafficking. Later, these mafia found that organ trafficking was profitable and began to work with the Public Security Bureau and labor camps to conduct organ trafficking. At that time, however, the number of humans and organs was quite limited. So the scale was small. Until the persecution of Falun Gong began in July 1999, at that time the Chinese Communist Party had collected data which indicated over 70 million people and across all levels of society were practicing Falun Gong. The movement is not political and practitioners seek only to promote truth, compassion, and forbearance across racial, national, and cultural boundaries, and to practice in peace. Violence is abhorred. But those in power, particularly the former leader Jiang Zemin, came to see Falun Gong as a threat to his monopoly of ideological power, and a campaign to destroy the practice was unleashed. Between 2000 and 2003, tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong and were arrested. Classified information from the Public Security Bureau in Beijing revealed that by the end of April 2001, less than two years into the ban, there had been approximately 830,000 arrests of Falun Gong adherents. By 2007 thousands had been 'disappeared' arrested, tortured and/or killed. According to the U.S. State Department's 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights "Falun Gong adherents constituted at least half of the 250,000 officially recorded inmates in reeducation-through-labor camps, while the real number could be even higher." As of August 2012, there are more than 3,500 confirmed deaths. Because the CCP persecuted Falun Gong practitioners and their family members, friends and employers, Falun Gong practitioners did not want their communities persecuted too and refused to tell their names so the number that have been killed is estimated to be much higher. As the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners spread nationwide, many provinces were carrying out the persecution policy passively. Bo Xilai, the figure so prominently in disgrace right now, was then Dalian mayor. In order to seek promotion, he actively promoted the persecution and offered to transfer to his city, the many Falun Gong practitioners held in Beijing as a result of their peaceful appeals. Dalian is also the home of the first plastination factory in China, the process that turns human bodies into plastic dummies and displays them in body exhibits around the world. When Bo moved on to become the governor of Liaoning Province, more practitioners were transferred there too. Bo Xilai has had many lawsuits brought against him around the world, for his role in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. Analysts have suggested that it was because of these lawsuits that Bo Xilai was posted to ChongQing as governor rather than a more central role in Beijing. It is also known that Bo's offsider Wang Li Jun had been given an award for his work on organ transplants. A huge market demand for organs internationally, the deteriorated morality of Chinese society, the tremendous profits involved, little respect for rule of law and a nationwide persecution of a group whose members are given no trial or right of appeal, have all combined to produce an unprecedented evil - the large-scale businesses of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners. The number of organ transplants conducted in China is huge. According to China Daily, the number reached 20,000 in 2005 and Kilgour and Matas estimate over 41,500 between 2000 and 2005. Such a big number of operations means that there is a big live organ supply. Where is such a crowd? Who are they? The trial of Bo Gu Kailai is only the tip of the iceberg. Harvesting organs live from a person, murdered on the grounds of their belief, and further selling the dead body for exhibit – even if one such case happens, it is such a huge humiliation for humanity and a degradation of human values. And that is without mentioning the systematic scale under which the crime is happening, seemingly with government support! An over-a-decade-long persecution of people who practice Truth, Compassion and Tolerance shows, the downslide of morality is evident, the society is on the verge of collapse. Falun Gong practitioners strongly urge the international society, governments and media to investigate the crimes of live organ harvesting and sale of victims' bodies. The Communist Party of China must open all its labor camps, prisons and affiliated facilities to allow independent international investigation to reveal the truth. |
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Why We Must Protest: The Case of Falun Gong
Editor’s note: After taking part in an event on July 8 in
Singapore marking the launch of his book (with David Kilgour) “Bloody
Harvest: The killing of Falun Gong for their organs,” David Matas met
with the press. He was asked the following question: “Why should I care
about the killing of Falun Gong for their organs? What does it have to
do with me?” Matas gave an extemporaneous answer to the question, but
then the next day wrote out a fuller response, which is this article.
What are you waiting for? Are you not going to protest until someone comes for you, to kill you for your organs? By then, it will be far too late.
Reverend Martin Niemoller, in 1938, wrote: “First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
The killing of Falun Gong for their organs is an abuse that did not start or end with Falun Gong. The killing of prisoners for their organs began in China with prisoners sentenced to death. As the research of Ethan Gutmann has shown, it spread to Uyghurs, Tibetans, and house Christians.
When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, many people asked a similar question: Why should we care about what the Nazis do to the Jews? What does it have to do with us?
By the Treaty of Munich in September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain agreed with Hitler, Mussolini, and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier to give the part of Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland to Germany. Czechoslovakia had no say in the matter.
In the House of Commons the same month, Chamberlain justified his appeasement of Hitler, saying about Hitler’s claims that Czechoslovakia was mistreating its ethnic German minority, that it was a “quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing.”
Yet, Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler in a quarrel between people of whom Neville Chamberlain and many of his British colleagues knew nothing led less than 12 months later to World War II, with over 400,000 British deaths, a global conflagration, and the Holocaust.
The German Nazi ideology of eliminationist antisemitism, the determination of the Nazi regime to kill Jews everywhere, precipitated, continued, and prolonged World War II.
The loss of Falun Gong practitioners through the killing for their organs is the loss to the global community of the contributions these individuals could have made if they had lived.
World War II was a disaster and a tragedy for the whole planet. Total casualties during World War II were 62 million—25 million military and 37 million civilian. Thirty-one million non-Jewish civilians died in that War.
The link between antisemitism and Nazi aggression was direct because Nazi Germany invaded foreign countries to kill their Jews. Lucy Dawidowicz, in her book “The War Against the Jews, 1933–1945,” writes that in the minds of the Nazi German leaders, World War II was a cover for its planned murder of the Jews.
After the war, the damage continued. The Nuremberg Tribunal established in 1945 was abolished in 1948 with half its docket unprosecuted, including Kurt Waldheim, who later went on to become secretary general of the United Nations and president of Austria.
Moreover, there were many thousands not yet identified, not yet charged, that would have been caught by a full-blown prosecution effort. The Allies were motivated by a desire to bring and keep West Germany onside in the Cold War.
For immunity against the Nazis to be effective, it had to be comprehensive. The creation of a general international criminal court, which had originally been part of the plans for postwar institutions, was scrapped. Similarly, local systems of justice had to avoid the prosecution of Nazi mass murderers in their midst.
That immunity became a license for one genocide after another. There is a direct link between the immunity given to Nazi mass murderers after World War II and the seemingly endless stream of post-World War II crimes against humanity—in Rwanda, in Cambodia, in Bosnia, in Sudan.
Vigorous Protest
If there is one thing we could have done to reverse the tragedies of the 20th century, I suggest it would have been this: Protest vigorously and globally the Nazi victimization of Jews from the minute it started. We cannot, of course, reverse history. But we can learn from it.
If there is one lesson that humanity should learn from World War II, it is that state hatred of a disadvantaged minority in a repressive country can wreak global damage.
If we know nothing about Falun Gong, we had better learn and learn fast. The abuses the government of China wreaks on Falun Gong run the risk of affecting us all.
While China is not about to invade foreign countries to kill their Falun Gong practitioners, spying, infiltration, and attempts at suppression are standard fare. The government of China uses threats, intimidation, political bullying, and the power of its large purse to corrupt human rights values planetwide in its attempts to demonize and marginalize Falun Gong.
Human rights oppression is a spreading, indelible stain. It never stops with today’s victims. Unless today’s victims are defended, we run the risk of becoming tomorrow’s victims.
Violators divide to conquer. They attack the most vulnerable,
counting on the indifference of those who could help by playing on the
difference between the victims and the outsiders. We must combat that
indifference by convincing outsiders of their unity with the victims.
Regrettably, in combating human rights violations, we have a wealth of choices. In choosing which violations to combat, first priority should go to the worst violations. We need to help victims in those countries who cannot help themselves.
Protesting the violations of brutal regimes abroad may seem forlorn. They may seem so firmly entrenched that nothing will budge them. Yet, the experience with South African apartheid, the communist Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the national security states of Latin America and more recently the tyrannies in Egypt and Tunisia shows the contrary.
The very inflexibility of these regimes means that they are brittle. Press against their violations bit by bit and eventually the regimes shatter.
Human rights belong to individuals, not states. Leave human rights to states and human rights will wither. Individuals must assert human rights to keep those rights alive.
Crimes against humanity are crimes against us all. When crimes against humanity are committed, we are all victims. We must not be silent in the face of our own victimization when part of our human family suffers from grave abuses.
Protesting human rights violations abroad is not just about others. Nor is it just an attempt to prevent worse in the future. It is about us, now.
Combating human rights violations abroad is considerate, humane. Turning a blind eye and a deaf ear are cruel, inhumane. We become who we are by what we do. By ignoring the plight of Falun Gong, we erode our own humanity, turn ourselves into mean, uncaring people.
We who are not Falun Gong must protest human rights violations of Falun Gong, not in spite of the fact that we are not Falun Gong but because we are not Falun Gong. By leaping across the geographical, spiritual, and cultural divide, we affirm our fundamental unity, our solidarity with all humanity, our common human bond.
David Matas is an international human rights lawyer based in Winnipeg, Canada.
More: The Epoch Times
What are you waiting for? Are you not going to protest until someone comes for you, to kill you for your organs? By then, it will be far too late.
Reverend Martin Niemoller, in 1938, wrote: “First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communists, and I did not speak out because I was not a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.”
The killing of Falun Gong for their organs is an abuse that did not start or end with Falun Gong. The killing of prisoners for their organs began in China with prisoners sentenced to death. As the research of Ethan Gutmann has shown, it spread to Uyghurs, Tibetans, and house Christians.
When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, many people asked a similar question: Why should we care about what the Nazis do to the Jews? What does it have to do with us?
By the Treaty of Munich in September 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain agreed with Hitler, Mussolini, and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier to give the part of Czechoslovakia known as the Sudetenland to Germany. Czechoslovakia had no say in the matter.
In the House of Commons the same month, Chamberlain justified his appeasement of Hitler, saying about Hitler’s claims that Czechoslovakia was mistreating its ethnic German minority, that it was a “quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing.”
It would be all too easy to repeat the gist of this sentiment: that the people outside of China know nothing about Falun Gong, that the government of China’s repression of Falun Gong is not a quarrel in which outsiders have any interest or stake.By ignoring the plight of Falun Gong we erode our own humanity.
Yet, Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler in a quarrel between people of whom Neville Chamberlain and many of his British colleagues knew nothing led less than 12 months later to World War II, with over 400,000 British deaths, a global conflagration, and the Holocaust.
The German Nazi ideology of eliminationist antisemitism, the determination of the Nazi regime to kill Jews everywhere, precipitated, continued, and prolonged World War II.
Global Loss
For the Jewish community, World War II was a loss beyond words. The Jewish community lost 6 million souls, one-third of its population. The Yiddish shtetl culture of Eastern Europe was obliterated.
The global community suffered that loss. Jews have made signal contributions to global science and arts, culture and learning. Albert Einstein himself would have been killed in the Holocaust had he not escaped and been a refugee.
The loss of Falun Gong practitioners through the killing for their organs is the loss to the global community of the contributions these individuals could have made if they had lived.
World War II was a disaster and a tragedy for the whole planet. Total casualties during World War II were 62 million—25 million military and 37 million civilian. Thirty-one million non-Jewish civilians died in that War.
The link between antisemitism and Nazi aggression was direct because Nazi Germany invaded foreign countries to kill their Jews. Lucy Dawidowicz, in her book “The War Against the Jews, 1933–1945,” writes that in the minds of the Nazi German leaders, World War II was a cover for its planned murder of the Jews.
There was even a link between antisemitism and Japanese aggression. The Japanese invasions in Asia were made possible by its Tripartite Pact with Italy and Germany and the power vacuum created in Asia by German attacks on the Asian colonial powers—France, the Netherlands, and Britain. Hatred of Jews dragged the whole world down.Human rights oppression is a spreading, indelible stain.
After the war, the damage continued. The Nuremberg Tribunal established in 1945 was abolished in 1948 with half its docket unprosecuted, including Kurt Waldheim, who later went on to become secretary general of the United Nations and president of Austria.
Moreover, there were many thousands not yet identified, not yet charged, that would have been caught by a full-blown prosecution effort. The Allies were motivated by a desire to bring and keep West Germany onside in the Cold War.
For immunity against the Nazis to be effective, it had to be comprehensive. The creation of a general international criminal court, which had originally been part of the plans for postwar institutions, was scrapped. Similarly, local systems of justice had to avoid the prosecution of Nazi mass murderers in their midst.
That immunity became a license for one genocide after another. There is a direct link between the immunity given to Nazi mass murderers after World War II and the seemingly endless stream of post-World War II crimes against humanity—in Rwanda, in Cambodia, in Bosnia, in Sudan.
Vigorous Protest
If there is one thing we could have done to reverse the tragedies of the 20th century, I suggest it would have been this: Protest vigorously and globally the Nazi victimization of Jews from the minute it started. We cannot, of course, reverse history. But we can learn from it.
If there is one lesson that humanity should learn from World War II, it is that state hatred of a disadvantaged minority in a repressive country can wreak global damage.
If we know nothing about Falun Gong, we had better learn and learn fast. The abuses the government of China wreaks on Falun Gong run the risk of affecting us all.
While China is not about to invade foreign countries to kill their Falun Gong practitioners, spying, infiltration, and attempts at suppression are standard fare. The government of China uses threats, intimidation, political bullying, and the power of its large purse to corrupt human rights values planetwide in its attempts to demonize and marginalize Falun Gong.
Human rights oppression is a spreading, indelible stain. It never stops with today’s victims. Unless today’s victims are defended, we run the risk of becoming tomorrow’s victims.
Regrettably, in combating human rights violations, we have a wealth of choices. In choosing which violations to combat, first priority should go to the worst violations. We need to help victims in those countries who cannot help themselves.
If you become a human rights activist in China combating repression of Falun Gong, you run a grave risk of becoming a human rights victim yourself, as the case of Gao Zhisheng demonstrates all too well. Outsiders must help Falun Gong in China because only outsiders can do so from the vantage of safety.The government of China uses threats, intimidation, political bullying, and the power of its large purse to corrupt human rights values planet-wide in its attempts to demonize and marginalize Falun Gong.
Protesting the violations of brutal regimes abroad may seem forlorn. They may seem so firmly entrenched that nothing will budge them. Yet, the experience with South African apartheid, the communist Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, the national security states of Latin America and more recently the tyrannies in Egypt and Tunisia shows the contrary.
The very inflexibility of these regimes means that they are brittle. Press against their violations bit by bit and eventually the regimes shatter.
Remedies for Victims
In any case, our primary audience when we protest violations is not the perpetrators but the victims.
Whether our protests move the violators, they surely move the victims. For many victims, the worst part of their victimization is their despair at being unnoticed and abandoned. By standing with the victims, we say we know what is happening and we object to what is happening; our very protests are for the victims remedies in themselves.
Human rights belong to individuals, not states. Leave human rights to states and human rights will wither. Individuals must assert human rights to keep those rights alive.
Crimes against humanity are crimes against us all. When crimes against humanity are committed, we are all victims. We must not be silent in the face of our own victimization when part of our human family suffers from grave abuses.
Protesting human rights violations abroad is not just about others. Nor is it just an attempt to prevent worse in the future. It is about us, now.
Combating human rights violations abroad is considerate, humane. Turning a blind eye and a deaf ear are cruel, inhumane. We become who we are by what we do. By ignoring the plight of Falun Gong, we erode our own humanity, turn ourselves into mean, uncaring people.
We who are not Falun Gong must protest human rights violations of Falun Gong, not in spite of the fact that we are not Falun Gong but because we are not Falun Gong. By leaping across the geographical, spiritual, and cultural divide, we affirm our fundamental unity, our solidarity with all humanity, our common human bond.
David Matas is an international human rights lawyer based in Winnipeg, Canada.
More: The Epoch Times
International Voices Laud Tuidang, Look to a Free China
Full Article at The Epoch Times
Thousands Rally at Taiwan Presidential Building to rescue Falun Gong
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
'Take a stand' Urge Doctors Against Organ Harvesting
| A medical advocacy group held a conference hosted by Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH), in Berlin on July 18, drawing
attention to the abuse of organ transplantation by Chinese authorities. |
The vast majority are Falun Gong
practitioners who are arbitrarily arrested. Many are tortured to death.
They are considered healthy and are at the disposal of the state, held
in hundred of thousands in labor camps.
Together with former Canadian Secretary of State David Kilgour, in 2006 he produced an investigative report on the topic. The report later became a book titled Bloody Harvest.
Recently, Matas has co-edited a new book called State Organs: Transplant Abuse in China, which is a collaboration of 12 authors presenting their latest findings.
He believes the practice of illegal organ harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience originates in the “intersection of hatred and greed.”
More: he Epoch Times
Friday, July 20, 2012
Ottawa: Falun Gong mark 13th anniversary of China's brutal crackdown
Meditating Falun Gong supporters gathered across from the Chinese embassy Friday to mark the 13th anniversary of a brutal crackdown on the religious group by the Chinese government.
“Minister Baird is in China right now and we hope he can make a statement on behalf of Falun Gong,” said Lucy Zhou of the Falun Dafa Association of Canada. “We’re hoping trade wouldn’t override human rights.”
In the run up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Amnesty International reported thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were arrested and hundreds imprisoned or assigned to Re-education through Labour camps, often subject to torture and sometimes death.
Standing with Zhou, Falun Gong practitioner Young Wang, who came to Canada from China for work in November 2011, said that he spent more than a year in a Chinese labour camp for the group’s supporters in 2001.
“It was evil,” he said. “They put us in a crowded room and we were forced to watch anti-Falun Gong propaganda and renounce the organization every day when we weren’t working eight hour shifts to produce big chunks of steel.”
Wang, a program manager in IT, said he was arrested after police began tracking the number of emails he sent out speaking up for the group. “They came to my home and arrested me and all my computers were confiscated,” he said.
“Some of the other practitioners in prison were beaten very badly,” he said, “even though they were 60 to 70 years old.”
Zhou, who has been protesting across from the embassy for years, said that Chinese tourists who visit the embassy are shocked to see Falun Gong members protesting at all. “We are like a window for them to see the lies,” she said
“Evidence that Falun Gong detinees have been killed for their organs,” Zhou said, “has given rise to international investigations, and even a ban on China-based organ transplant surgeries by some countries.”
In March, a Chinese health official announced that over five years the country will phase out the practice of transplanting organs from executed prisoners and create a national organ donation program.
More: Metro News
China's Abuse of Falun Gong Practitioners Worsening: Ros-Lehtinen
Ros-Lehtinen said at July 12 DC Rally -- “As many of you know, I have addressed this
peaceful gathering of Falun Gong activists for several
years now, yet sadly, things appear to have worsened for our ...
“The peaceful men and women of Falun Gong are among the largest group of prisoners of conscience in the world. These murders, kidnappings and other egregious human rights abuses serve as a reminder of the lengths and depths the cruel old men in Beijing will go to in order to retain their bloody grip on power. Authorities have imprisoned anyone willing to speak out to defend victims of these heinous acts, including human rights lawyer Mr. Gao, who remains incarcerated at a remote facility and unable to regularly contact his family.
“The cowards in Beijing are so scared of Falun Gong’s tranquil teachings that their internet censors have blocked Chinese citizens from searching for it or even discussing it in web chats or via email. This loathsome persecution of Falun Gong must stop and it must stop now! It is essential that the people of China continue their struggle for democracy and human rights. It is essential that friends and supporters of democracy and human rights continue to show their solidarity and support, by speaking out against these abuses and by embracing such courageous figures of conscience as the Dalai Lama.
“China’s rise as a global power has made people hesitant to criticize the regime, fearing economic repercussions. President Obama must do what is right and not be timid in the face of Chinese bullying and threats. It is up to the United States, as a symbol of liberty, to confront the immoral Communist leadership in Beijing and speak out for the human rights of the Chinese people.
“This means urging the old men in Beijing to stop repressing Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans, Uyghurs, all other Chinese as well as North Korean refugees. It means not allowing ownership of America’s debt to be synonymous with ownership of America’s values. It is our responsibility to be that shining city on a hill, to be a beacon of freedom, liberty and hope for the entire world to see!
“America must stand with Falun Gong and all the repressed! Beijing must release Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience, immediately. Set China free!”
More: Foreign Affairs Official Committee Blog
“The peaceful men and women of Falun Gong are among the largest group of prisoners of conscience in the world. These murders, kidnappings and other egregious human rights abuses serve as a reminder of the lengths and depths the cruel old men in Beijing will go to in order to retain their bloody grip on power. Authorities have imprisoned anyone willing to speak out to defend victims of these heinous acts, including human rights lawyer Mr. Gao, who remains incarcerated at a remote facility and unable to regularly contact his family.
“The cowards in Beijing are so scared of Falun Gong’s tranquil teachings that their internet censors have blocked Chinese citizens from searching for it or even discussing it in web chats or via email. This loathsome persecution of Falun Gong must stop and it must stop now! It is essential that the people of China continue their struggle for democracy and human rights. It is essential that friends and supporters of democracy and human rights continue to show their solidarity and support, by speaking out against these abuses and by embracing such courageous figures of conscience as the Dalai Lama.
“China’s rise as a global power has made people hesitant to criticize the regime, fearing economic repercussions. President Obama must do what is right and not be timid in the face of Chinese bullying and threats. It is up to the United States, as a symbol of liberty, to confront the immoral Communist leadership in Beijing and speak out for the human rights of the Chinese people.
“This means urging the old men in Beijing to stop repressing Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans, Uyghurs, all other Chinese as well as North Korean refugees. It means not allowing ownership of America’s debt to be synonymous with ownership of America’s values. It is our responsibility to be that shining city on a hill, to be a beacon of freedom, liberty and hope for the entire world to see!
“America must stand with Falun Gong and all the repressed! Beijing must release Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience, immediately. Set China free!”
More: Foreign Affairs Official Committee Blog
Amnesty Calls to Rescue Detained Falun Gong Mother and Daughter
The petition, which has received 15,000 signatures, “seeks justice for the death of Wang Xiuqing’s husband and Qin Hailong’s father, Qin Yueming, in Jiamusi prison in February 2011, and calls for their release from detention,” states Amnesty International.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
The killing of Falun Gong for their organs--Intent and evidence for genocide: Matas
Intent and evidence for genocide
A case study: the killing of Falun Gong for their organs
Remarks prepared for a global conference on genocide, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, 30 June 2012
by David Matas
What happens in China behind closed doors at Communist Party meetings is, by its very
nature, not a matter of verifiable public record. What could be seen though by anyone at
this time was the lifting of censorship on the killing of Falun Gong for their organs. In late
March 2012, search results about organ transplants on the officially sanctioned Chinese
search engine Baidu showed information about the work David Kilgour and I did, Bloody Harvest and the involvement of Wang Lijun in organ harvesting.
A source told The Epoch Times that--
"Wang gave U.S. officials confidential documents containing critical information
about top Communist officials' involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong. The
source said Wang provided details about organ harvesting from living Falun Gong
practitioners in China's network of military hospitals, prisons, mental hospitals, and
labor camps"20.
The implication from those two statements is that Wang told US officials about the
involvement of top Communist officials in the killing of Falun Gong for their organs. That
information from the source, if accurate, adds to the weight of evidence giving reasonable
grounds to believe or a reasonable basis for concluding that the offence of genocide was
committed....
What happens in China behind closed doors at Communist Party meetings is, by its very
nature, not a matter of verifiable public record. What could be seen though by anyone at
this time was the lifting of censorship on the killing of Falun Gong for their organs. In late
March 2012, search results about organ transplants on the officially sanctioned Chinese
search engine Baidu showed information about the work David Kilgour and I did, Bloody Harvest and the involvement of Wang Lijun in organ harvesting.
A source told The Epoch Times that--
"Wang gave U.S. officials confidential documents containing critical information
about top Communist officials' involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong. The
source said Wang provided details about organ harvesting from living Falun Gong
practitioners in China's network of military hospitals, prisons, mental hospitals, and
labor camps"20.
The implication from those two statements is that Wang told US officials about the
involvement of top Communist officials in the killing of Falun Gong for their organs. That
information from the source, if accurate, adds to the weight of evidence giving reasonable
grounds to believe or a reasonable basis for concluding that the offence of genocide was
committed....
Read the full document here
Arrest of Taiwan Citizen in China Raises High Stakes
Chung Ting-pang's family
calls for his release. (The Epoch Times) The arrest in
mainland China a little over three weeks
ago of a citizen of Taiwan poses a significant
challenge...
As a Falun Gong practitioner, the only CCP documents that could interest him are the instructions to persecute Falun Gong. That the persecution of Falun Gong has no legal basis is well known—the CCP has to use internal memos and Party documents to . ...
Falun Gong Persecution Ramps Up Ahead of Chinese Leadership Change
Local authorities in Guangzhou have
distributed leaflets to houses, forcing residents to sign
a “family promise” to “reject” Falun Gong.
More: The Epoch Times
DC: End the 13-Year Persecution of Falun Gong in China, and Stop the Tyranny of the Chinese Communist Party
WASHINGTON--Thousands of Falun Gong practitioners and supporters are gathering in Washington, DC to mark the 13th anniversary of the beginning of what has become one of the worst human rights violations in the world.
Events are open to the public and media.
Event 1: Rally on Capitol Hill Thursday, July 12, 201212:00 p.m – 1:30 p.m. West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol
Speakers to include members of Congress, human rights groups, and more
Event 2: Grand March Friday, July 13, 201211:30 a.m – 12:45 p.m. Thousands of Falun Gong supporters will march from John Marshall Park (501 Pennsylvania Avenue NW) to the Washington Monument to call for freedom for Falun Gong and an end to the persecution in China.
Event 3: Candlelight Vigil Friday, July 13, 20128:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Washington Monument
To commemorate those who have lost their lives and their freedom to the persecution in China, Falun Gong practitioners and supporters will hold a vigil to peacefully show their solidarity.
Background: Within seven years of its public introduction in 1992, Falun Gong spread by word of mouth to 100 million people in China, who experienced firsthand its health and spiritual benefits. Then, on July 20th, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched a campaign to eradicate Falun Gong through propaganda, mass imprisonment, torture, and other forms of coercive "reeducation" that have resulted in over 3,550 confirmed deaths. To this day, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are held extra-judicially in labor camps where physical and psychiatric torture is routinely used. Falun Gong practitioners have responded to the state-sanctioned violence using entirely peaceful means. For thirteen years they have sought to educate the public about the persecution. To this day, more than 110 million people have submitted statements to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party, and its affiliated organizations, embracing hope for a free and peaceful future.
Falun Dafa Association of Washington, D.C.
Events are open to the public and media.
Event 1: Rally on Capitol Hill Thursday, July 12, 201212:00 p.m – 1:30 p.m. West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol
Speakers to include members of Congress, human rights groups, and more
Event 2: Grand March Friday, July 13, 201211:30 a.m – 12:45 p.m. Thousands of Falun Gong supporters will march from John Marshall Park (501 Pennsylvania Avenue NW) to the Washington Monument to call for freedom for Falun Gong and an end to the persecution in China.
Event 3: Candlelight Vigil Friday, July 13, 20128:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Washington Monument
To commemorate those who have lost their lives and their freedom to the persecution in China, Falun Gong practitioners and supporters will hold a vigil to peacefully show their solidarity.
Background: Within seven years of its public introduction in 1992, Falun Gong spread by word of mouth to 100 million people in China, who experienced firsthand its health and spiritual benefits. Then, on July 20th, 1999, the Chinese Communist Party launched a campaign to eradicate Falun Gong through propaganda, mass imprisonment, torture, and other forms of coercive "reeducation" that have resulted in over 3,550 confirmed deaths. To this day, hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are held extra-judicially in labor camps where physical and psychiatric torture is routinely used. Falun Gong practitioners have responded to the state-sanctioned violence using entirely peaceful means. For thirteen years they have sought to educate the public about the persecution. To this day, more than 110 million people have submitted statements to withdraw from the Chinese Communist Party, and its affiliated organizations, embracing hope for a free and peaceful future.
Falun Dafa Association of Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Baird's trip to China coincides with 13th year of persecution of Falun Gong
Ottawa – As Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird visits China during the
13th anniversary marking the start of the violent state-sanctioned
repression of Falun Gong, the Falun Dafa Association of Canada joined by
the Hon. David Kilgour, former Secretary of State (Asia–Pacific), and
Mr. Lizhi He, torture survivor and former prisoner of conscience, held a
press conference on Parliament Hill earlier today. The message was
clear—to urge Minister Baird to seek end to the Chinese regime’s
atrocities against Falun Gong. Mr. He’s brother, Lizhong He, is one of
the eight Canadian family members imprisoned in China now and is
currently serving a 3-year jail term.
“We believe it is the best opportunity for our Foreign Affairs Minister to make a statement on the rights of Falun Gong practitioners during his visit to make Canada’s position on human rights and religious freedom clear. We appeal to Minister Baird to call for an end to the brutal persecution of Falun Gong, which remains the largest scale modern-day atrocity against a group of innocent people for their spiritual belief in Truth-Compassion-Forbearance” said Lucy Zhou, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Association of Canada. “With a stronger voice to end the persecution of Falun Gong at the transition of the leadership in China, our voice to support justice now can make a huge impact on the future of China that should take pride in placing herself on the right side of history.”
“I hope Minister Baird will extend his helping hand to Falun Gong practitioners, including my brother Lihong He and other seven imprisoned Canadian family members”, said Lizhi He, who spent 3.5 years in a Chinese prison for practicing Falun Gong and was later rescued to Canada and re-united with his wife in 2003.
According to a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Mr. Nowak, while “torture is systematic and widespread,” Falun Gong practitioners accounted for 66 percent of victims of alleged torture while in government custody. The US State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released last month stated “Falun Gong adherents constituted at least half of the 250,000 officially recorded inmates in reeducation-through-labor camps, while the real number could be even higher.”
Hon. David Kilgour and David Matas, renowned human rights lawyer, released an investigation report in 2006 revealing that a large-scale organ harvest of practitioners is happening in China and described it as a “new form of evil on this planet”.
The then-UN special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak and UN special Rapporteur on Religious Freedom both questioned the Chinese party-state about the issue. “Nowak concluded in March 2007 that the chain of evidence Matas and I were documenting provided a ‘coherent picture that causes concern’. In late 2008, the UN Committee against Torture indicated its concern and called for further investigation.” said Kilgour. “We are at an historical moment, when the Chinese people as a whole and some Chinese leaders appear to be seeking to end the persecution of Falun Gong, the international voices of elected officials such as John Baird can be extremely important.”
More: Canada Free Press
Related:
Baird’s Visit to China Rare Chance to Push Rights, Says Group
Friday, June 29, 2012
In Rare Move, Chinese Prison Guard Helps Petition for Falun Gong
A
fingerprint belonging to a prison guard was among the 15,000 that were
put on a petition in China’s northeastern Heilongjiang Province to
protest against the wrongful [...]
More: The Epoch Times
Why the fuss over Confucius Institutes?
Some say Beijing-funded language and culture schools fly in the face of academic freedom
By Alex BallingallThen, in 2011, as the Globe and Mail reported recently, a teacher dispatched from China to teach at the Confucius Institute at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. quit her post and filed for refugee status. The newspaper reported that the teacher, a follower of China’s repressed Falun Gong movement named Sonia Zhao, was unable to express her political or religious beliefs as a Confucius Institute teacher—it was prohibited in her job contract, which outlaws teachers with Falun Gong affiliations. In her formal complaint to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, Zhao accused McMaster of “giving legitimization to discrimination.”
It’s hardly the first time Confucius Institutes—of which there more than 320 worldwide—have been cast in an unfavourable light. Funded by Hanban, a branch of China’s education ministry, the institutes have been framed as propaganda tools that export Beijing’s tightly controlled worldview for international consumption, limiting student discussion of Tibet, the Tiananmen Square massacre and the status of ethnic and religious minorities in China. Last summer, human rights lawyer Clive Ansley told the Epoch Times that Confucius Institutes, in banning teachers with ties to the Falun Gong, are breaking “all human rights codes in Canada.”
More: MacLean's
Making Sense of China’s Political Crisis: Jason Loftus
Jason Loftus: I’m going to make what may sound like a bold assertion: that Falun Gong, and the persecution of Falun Gong, is the core issue behind the extraordinary political events we [...]
. The crimes committed in persecuting Falun Gong will, once acknowledged, threaten the existence of the Communist Party.
Bo Xilai has been sued in over a dozen countries for crimes against
humanity and genocide. He was indicted by the Spanish National Court in
2009 on charges of genocide and torture.
The best guess is that tens of thousands of practitioners have died from torture and abuse. An estimated 450,000 to 1,000,000 Falun Gong practitioners are locked up in labor camps right now, where they suffer abuse, brainwashing, and torture. Throughout China, families have been shattered. There is an entire generation of orphans who have lost one or both parents to the persecution.
The best guess is that tens of thousands of practitioners have died from torture and abuse. An estimated 450,000 to 1,000,000 Falun Gong practitioners are locked up in labor camps right now, where they suffer abuse, brainwashing, and torture. Throughout China, families have been shattered. There is an entire generation of orphans who have lost one or both parents to the persecution.
As horrible as all of this is, there is something more horrifying:
the evil of forced, live organ harvesting going on in China. Tens of
thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been killed for their organs
while still alive.
This has been organized by the PLAC. And leading members of Jiang’s faction are heavily involved.
Wang Lijun has bragged in a speech of overseeing thousands of organ harvesting operations. Shenyang City in Liaoning Province under Bo Xilai appears to have been ground zero for the development of this atrocity. Zhou Yongkang is also heavily involved.
This has been organized by the PLAC. And leading members of Jiang’s faction are heavily involved.
Wang Lijun has bragged in a speech of overseeing thousands of organ harvesting operations. Shenyang City in Liaoning Province under Bo Xilai appears to have been ground zero for the development of this atrocity. Zhou Yongkang is also heavily involved.
More: The Epoch Times
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