August 18, 2006

Findlay may be a long way from China, but for a group of activists working to get the message of torture and abuse of [...] Chinese health practitioners out Thursday afternoon, it was as good a place as any.

"The more people who know about this, the quicker it will be over," said Mark Cnuddle, of Pontiac, Mich., who is a follower of Falun Gong and has dedicated himself to this cause.

Falun Gong is a system of body and mind cultivation that involves meditation, spiritual tenets and gentle exercises. It was developed in China about 14 years ago, and in the last few years, practitioners of the system have suffered persecution in communist China -- everything from violence to imprisonment to organ harvesting from unwilling victims.

A group of Chinese citizens were traveling around northwest Ohio Thursday, and met with a local assistant professor from the University of Findlay, Cheng-Yuan Lee, in Findlay to let locals know what is going on in China. The group held an informational demonstration Thursday afternoon in Dorney Plaza.

Cnuddle called the Chinese oppression "unprecedented evil that has challenged the norms of society."

In March, he said, the Chinese communist government was reportedly killing people to harvest their organs for the country's transplant industry. The victims, he said, were not only Falun Gong practitioners, but also underground Christians and other religious and political dissidents.

He said the news came out from people who worked for transplant hospitals in China. The hospital workers said camps were set up near the hospitals where unwilling donors were housed so they could provide organs for those willing to pay high prices for them. That way, he said, organs could be sold on demand.

Cnuddle said that between 2000 and 2005, 41,500 organ transplants that took place in China could not be accounted for by willing donors.

"What can you personally do?" Cnuddle asked. "First, let people know. Tell your elected officials, tell your family, tell your friends and neighbors. Evil flourishes in dark places. The illegal organ harvesting in China must be brought into full daylight for all the world to see. Ask your Congressional representatives to demand an account from China. Appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Commission for a full investigation."

He likened what is happening in China to the Holocaust in World War II Europe, and noted that by the time liberators reached the concentration camps, 6 million Jews had already perished.

Two victims of the oppression in China, both Falun Gong practitioners, were on hand Wednesday to tell their own stories.

A woman known only as "Auntie Xu" to protect her identity said she was captured after she reported that the police were beating a citizen near Tiananmen Square. She admitted she was a Falun Gong practitioner, and was imprisoned and beaten, then released only at the point when her guards thought she might die.

Now, she travels the world to share her story, and has enjoyed a warm response in the United States.

"The United States government treated me really well," Auntie Xu said through a translator.

Song Zhang, a middle school teacher in China, was also imprisoned, along with his daughter, for practicing Falun Gong and not giving the authorities names of other practitioners. He lost 40 pounds in prison and was beaten, he said.

Now, he wants to help those left behind.

"It is my wish," he said, "to help rescue the other victims."

For more information on Falun Gong, go to www.falundafa.org. For more information locally, call Cheng-Yuan "Corey" Lee at 419-423-3974.

http://www.thecourier.com/Issues/2006/Aug/ar_news_081806.asp#story4