Elk Valley Times (Tennessee): Falun Gong Practitioner Likens Persecution in China to Hitler Regime

May 30, 2006

Until recently, when Dr. Wenyi Wang shouted protests at the Chinese communist leader as he delivered remarks at the White House, much of the world has been oblivious to the reported persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China.

But Lincoln County resident Karin Wells is tirelessly traveling throughout the South, raising awareness of their plight.

A former employee of the U.S. government, Karin met her husband, David, while working at a military base in Germany. Karin became a Falun Gong practitioner in 1991 [Editor's note: It may have been 2001]. It is a practice of the Buddha School, consisting of teaching that promotes "exercise for body and mind, and living on the principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance (forbearance)."

She said the peaceful practice was first introduced to the public in 1992 in China, and by 1999, one hundred million people were practicing Falun Gong in 50 countries.

By July 20, 1999 eight percent of the entire population of China were termed illegal persons by virtue of their beliefs in Falun Gong by Jiang Zemin, China's top leader and Chinese Communist Party chairman.

The CCP, threatened because the numbers of Falun Gong were becoming larger than their own party, began a campaign to defame the group. They were denounced [slanderous term omitted]. According to a 2002 CNN article, since the practice was outlawed, thousands of members have been detained, and activists based outside China claim hundreds have died and have been tortured by unspeakable methods while in custody. An untold number of children have become homeless, either because their parents are imprisoned or dead.

In the past few months reports are that a wealth of horrifying evidence has surfaced showing how the CCP is systematically harvesting the organs of live Falun Gong practitioners and cremating their bodies to destroy all evidence. Their motive is to supply a lucrative organ transplant business throughout China, while destroying the Falun Gong practitioners.

Wang, who was arrested and charged for shouting at Chinese communist leader Hu Jintao, had been involved in this ongoing investigation. The Falun Dafa Information Center is calling upon the United States to drop all charges against Wang, and rather, focus on what prompted her protest -- the mass imprisonment, torture and killing of Falun Gong practitioners at the hands of the CCP.

"I am disappointed with the media's focus on how embarrassing this is to the United States and the President," said Karin. "Are we trying to impress the brutal communist regime with how well we can bow to them?"

"Imagine if this had happened in the late 1930s. Imagine if Hitler had come to the White House for a welcoming ceremony while back in Germany, they were persecuting the Jews and all those with beliefs other than that of the Nazi regime. What if some courageous American stood up, put basic human rights ahead of their own self-interest, and yelled, 'Adolph Hitler, stop persecuting the Jews'.

"A lot of Christian leaders stood up in solidarity (for Wenyi)," she said.

After World War II, the U.S. government said never again, but they are not doing anything, said Karin. "If we could stop Falun Gong persecution, everything else would stop.

"At the same time we help other belief systems," she continued, noting that many other groups have been persecuted in China as well. In the last 10 years alone, more than 26,000 Christians have been arrested and imprisoned in China, more than in any other country, according to spokesperson for "The Voice of the Martyrs."

For the past several years Falun Gong practitioners in China, at great risk to themselves, have leaked daily reports from inside China's forced labor camp system, prisons and detention centers to the outside world.

On March 9 The Epoch Times broke the story of how approximately 6000 Falun Gong practitioners had been held in a facility next to a hospital complex in the Sujiatun Concentration Camp in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province in northeastern China.

Their sources for the story were a journalist who had worked for a Japanese television station covering northeastern China and a former surgeon's wife who had performed organ harvesting at Sujiatun. The Epoch Times reported that subsequent investigations, made by calling doctors and staff at the hospitals performing the transplants, revealed that what had happened at Sujiatun was just the tip of the iceberg.

Investigators, who posed as patients needing organ transplants, compiled testimonies of the practice from doctors at hospitals in eight different provinces and cities. There are reportedly dozens of secret concentration camps around the country for the sole purpose of killing Falun Gong practitioners and extracting their organs.

Since the publishing of the information, reports from China are that the Chinese regime quickly transferred the remaining practitioners out of the facility and devised a cover-up. According to The Epoch Times, transplant doctors in China told people to hurry and get their transplants before May 1, while the organs are plentiful. The organs, once removed are sold for transplants for thousands of dollars to Thailand and other parts of the world. Wells said the news is that the destruction of all evidence, including human evidence, is to be completed by July 1, the CCP birthday.

"A coalition is going to China to investigate the persecution, but they have been denied visas," Karin said.

After July 1 investigators from North America, Europe and Australia, part of a newly formed international coalition, plan to investigate medical facilities throughout China that conduct organ transplants.

"Eighty-one congressional leaders signed a letter to give to President Bush," she said, adding that she has contacted Tennessee congressmen - "Very few respond - if any," she said, sadly.

Karin likens the reported persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China to that of the holocaust in Nazi Germany. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch report that China executes more people every year than all other countries combined.

The Falun Dafa Information Center has verified details of 2804 deaths and over 44,000 cases of torture. Millions have been detained or sent to forced labor camps, according to the center.

Worldwide, numerous class action lawsuits have been filed against Jiang by renowned human rights lawyers, such as Dr. Terri Marsh, a lead attorney on a U.S. class action suit. In a May 2004 edition of Compassion Magazine, Marsh said, "Under Jiang's personal direction, officials conducting the campaign of persecution against Falun Gong have committed substantial violation of the Conventions against Genocide and against Torture. The death toll is exceedingly high. Brutal torture is state authorized and is common place ..."

During a forum at Auburn University, two Chinese Falun Gong practitioners attested to the abuse and torture of forced labor camps they were victims of in that country, according to an article in The Epoch Times, March 20-22 edition.

Karin's plea is for people to appeal to the U.S. government to help rescue these children and to write to President Bush and congressional leaders, urging them to take action to stop the brutal and horrific massacre.

"We can only ask for their help and support ... we do peaceful demonstrations - we don't believe in violence," she explained. "All we want to do is to stop the persecution of innocent people."

For more information on how to help the Falun Gong practitioners or how to contact government officials, Wells can be called at 433-7614.