September 9, 2006 Saturday

Clement Sun, 32, a follower of the spiritual and physical regimen known as Falun Gong, stands outside Welland city hall on Friday where he and others protest alleged organ harvesting being carried out by the Chinese government.

Teams of Canadian practitioners of Falun Gong are touring the country trying to raise awareness of a controversial report which found the Chinese government is harvesting human organs from prisoners.

The report, by former MP David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas, was released on July 6 and estimates as many as 41,500 organs transplanted in China over the past six years may have come from Falun Gong practitioners.

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Four Falun Gong practitioners from the Toronto area were in Niagara on Friday and made a stop in front of Welland's city hall to hand out information.

Allegations the People's Republic of China is forcibly harvesting human organs from Falun Gong prisoners surfaced earlier this year.

"Many people did not believe these allegations, even some Falun Gong practitioners," said Clement Sun, a practitioner of the exercise and spiritual regimen.

Sun, who left his homeland eight years ago and last month received Canadian citizenship, said the report by the "two Davids," as he called them, has persuaded him.

Kilgour and Matas were asked to investigate the allegations by a non-governmental organization registered in Washington, D.C., called the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong in China (CIPFG).

Practice of Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, was banned by the Chinese government in 1999. At the time, it was estimated 70 million Chinese citizens adhered to Falun Gong, which is an offshoot of a centuries old system of [...] exercises called qigong, which is thought to improve health and spiritual sensitivity.

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Sun, 32-years-old, said he's been practising Falun Gong for four years. The movement is non-political, said Sun, and tries to promote truth, tolerance and compassion.

Falung Gong's growing popularity "alerted nervous (Chinese Communist) party leaders ... to the growing popularity of the movement," says the report by Kilgour and Matas.

The Chinese government started to crackdown on adherents, and large numbers have been arrested and held.

In their conclusions, Kilgour and Matas say they "believe that there has been and continues today to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners."

Since 1999, the Chinese government and its agencies have put to death a "large but unknown number" of Falun Gong prisoners and seized their vital organs for sale, sometimes to foreigners, at high prices, says the report.

The report describes such organ harvesting as a "crime against humanity," and calls on the Chinese government to halt its practice.

The tour by Canadian followers of Falun Dong is intended to raise public awareness and urge Canadian governments to take serious action to stop the organ harvesting, said Sun. "To many, this whole thing might seem like science fiction," he said. "It's like there's this supermarket with human organs for sale. But is is true, it's happening today."

Two calls to the Chinese embassy in Ottawa were not returned Friday.

The Toronto teams have sample letters of support they are asking Canadians to send to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and are asking people to sign an on-line petition at www.falundafa.ca/infocentre/petition .