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The Council of Europe (COE) held its third meeting in Strasbourg, France this week. A forum entitled, "Closely looking at the environmental pollution and the human rights condition in China," was held on June 27, 2006. The organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners that has taken place in China's labor camps was a focus of the meeting. This forum was presided over by Mr. Lindblad from the Swedish Parliament delegation. Experts and professors from Germany, the UK, France, Belgium and Australia, representatives of human rights organizations, and Falun Gong practitioners who have experienced persecution presented speeches at the forum.
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| Speakers at the forum | Council members and media representatives attending the forum |
This forum obtained support from many international human rights organizations. The co-organizers of the forum include, Human Rights Without Frontiers International headquartered in Belgium, the International Society for Human Rights headquartered in Germany, The Epoch Times Europe, The Association for Former Political Prisoners in Romania, Network for Human Rights in China, from Norway, Support Human Rights in China, from Sweden, and the Network for Human Rights in China, from Denmark.
The director of the International Human Rights Association, Mr. Man Yang mentioned in his speech that in order to consolidate its political power, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has caused several ten of millions of Chinese people to lose their lives during the process of so called "developing" economically after destroying China's economic basis. Mr. Man said, "In order to seize and maintain power, the CCP uses various evil methods to suppress dissidents and religious believers. Since March 2006, some witnesses have unceasingly accused the CCP of harvesting organs on a large scale from living Falun Gong practitioners for profit, and then cremating their bodies to destroy the evidence of its crimes. Witnesses revealed that at least 36 concentration camps and a large number of labor camps illegally imprison Falun Gong practitioners so their organs can be harvested for transplants; the personnel involved include the CCP's high-level officials, the military and the armed police, hospitals and other agencies. A witness disclosed that just in the Shenyang Sujiatun hospital alone, there were several thousand people killed. Many Falun Gong practitioners had been pushed to the surgery table, and with very little anesthetic, their cornea, kidney, liver and other organs have been excised and sold on the international transplant market for huge profit. In order to escape from being investigated, those imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners can be shifted to other places at any time necessary."
Professor Li Shao spoke of "the dangerous growth" in China, analyzed the current situation of environmental pollution in the past 50 years in China in light of the massive data and photographic evidence and the spread of avian flu, exposed the evil conduct of the organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners in concentration camps and labor camps in China. While talking about the crime of organ harvesting from living persons, Professor Li Shao said, "According to testimony from witnesses, there are at least 36 secret concentration camps, like the one in Sujiatun, across China. This extremely tragic crime started from the end of the year 2000, and has taken place continuously in labor camps, prisons, secret concentration camps and hospitals across the country and is still happening today. On the websites of some of China's hospitals, they claim they can guarantee to find matching livers and kidneys in a very short time. We all know that, even in the USA where the consciousness of organs donation is well developed, the average waiting time for organ transplant is 2 - 7 years, because there is an extremely small chance to find a matching organ for transplant. However, a hospital in China, the 3rd Hospital of Zhongshan, is able to find matching livers and kidneys in 24 hours."
A Falun Gong practitioner, Ms Ying Chen, is a survivor of this crime of organ harvesting. She stated her personal experience of being imprisoned in China just because of not giving up the practice of Falun Gong. She said, "I held a hunger strike to protest against the illegal imprisonment and violence against me. I was put in handcuffs and dragged to a police vehicle, then I was been taken to a hospital. The police forced me to have a comprehensive physical examination including the inspection of heart, blood, eyes, etc. Although the inspection result showed that my body was in normal condition, the police insisted on injecting some unknown drug into my body. When the drug entered into my body, I suddenly felt my heart beating fiercely and severe pain like the blood vessels cracking; I felt my heart flutter and felt suffocated -- unusually uncomfortable throughout my body. After being injected, the left side of my body often twitched, my nerves felt numb and painful, after that I lost much of my memory. Afterwards, my family members paid to have me released on bail. When I read for the first time about the brutality of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners in the hell-hole of Sujiatun concentration camp reported on the Internet, my tears could not stop flowing. Recalling what happened to me, most likely they planned to use drugs to destroy my nervous system, and then send me somewhere to harvest my organs. Upon thinking of this, I tremble with fear."
Ms Zhizhen Dai, with her 6-year-old daughter, exposed the CCP's atrocities using her personal experiences. She said in the speech, "After the CCP banned Falun Gong, my husband was arrested because of his appeal for Falun Gong. The police arrested him from our home in front of me and my little daughter at the beginning of January 2001. He was only 34 years old, a strong person at that time. I had to return to Australia with my daughter under that situation. Who knew that would be my last time I would see my husband alive. Two weeks later, on the Internet, I saw the news of my husband being persecuted to death. The Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through negotiations with the Chinese government, took my husband's ashes to Australia. Up to now, I still don't know what kind of treatment he experienced after being arrested by the police. He perhaps died of torture, perhaps died at organ harvesting while he was still alive. I appeal to the COE and all people here to help us to stop this persecution of Falun Gong."
Ms Elise Steyaert, the representative from Human Rights Without Frontiers International, read a statement. In the statement, the organization appealed to the COE to openly discuss the issue of organ harvesting in China and to send an investigation group to China to investigate the truth.
Ms Elise Steyaert, Representative from Human Rights Without
Frontiers International