2006/10/14
TAIPEI, CNA

Taiwan condemns in the strongest possible terms China's harvesting of human organs from executed Falun Gong practitioners, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Joseph Wu said yesterday.

Taiwan is also gravely concerned about prevalent infringements upon human rights across China and the development of related situations, Wu said when he met with three human rights activists from Canada and the United States.

Wu met with David Kilgour, a former Canadian secretary of state for Asia-Pacific and Latin America, and David Matas, an international human rights lawyer, who co-authored the Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China, and Wang Wenyi, a China born pathologist who became famous last April when she created a scene by shouting at visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao and his American host George W. Bush during a White House welcoming ceremony. Wu said Taiwan is not only concerned about organ harvesting in China but is also worried about other human rights issues there, such as the shooting of Tibetans by Chinese paramilitary police, arrests of human rights lawyers and a purge of Muslims and Christians.

For his part, Kilgour, who has addressed the United Nations and the U.S. Congress about religious freedom and China's organ harvesting, said he and Matas had tried to enter China in May to verify the factuality of the claims contained in their report, but were denied entrance by the Beijing authorities.
Even more ridiculous was that Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhicheng, who invited Matas and Kilgour to visit China to compile their report, was arrested and indicted by the Chinese authorities on charges of "sedition to overthrow the government" recently, Kilgour said, adding that Gao was only calling for the Chinese authorities to uphold freedom, human rights and rule of law in China. Kilgour said Beijing has totally denied the accusations of organ harvesting from executed Falun Gong practitioners because China is preparing to host the 2008 Olympic Games. Ironically, he said, if people search the Google search engine for China's denial by typing in the keywords "China denied, " they will get more than 8.2 million entries.

For his part, Matas said that while harvesting organs is reportedly guided by the Chinese government, demands for the organs come from around the world, including Taiwan.

To cease this practice, Matas said, it must be done from the justice side and from the demand side as well. Matas said he is glad that Taiwan has been active in this regard.

Matas said he hopes that Taiwan will ban organ exchanges with China and ban organ transplants using organs from China. He expressed hope that the Taiwan authorities will warn Taiwan people from traveling to China for organ transplants while encouraging Taiwan people to donate their organs to help cut demand for Chinese organs.

Source: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/detail.asp?ID=92742&GRP=B