RightsBase

human rights news & views

Political prisoners executed for their organs

It couldn’t last. Two good-news posts in a row (25 July), but now I’m afraid my subject matter turns to human rights hell.

Since the de facto privatisation of the health system in China in the early 1980s, most Chinese can’t afford decent medical care. Meanwhile, human organs are sold to rich Chinese and foreigners for up to $US170,000. Someone is making a killing, and it’s not the ‘donor’. Most transplanted organs in China, it seems, are ‘harvested’ from prisoners — often political prisoners — executed to order.

More than 60,000 transplants have been performed in China since 2000. Almost 40,000 of those organs have come from executed members of the Falun Gong movement. Some are not executed first, but are still alive when their organs are removed and they are then left to die.

In an appalling disregard for medical ethics, the Friendship Hospital in Beijing is said to be actively complicit in this gruesome trade, notifying prisons when there is a demand and sending an ambulance around to collect the executed prisoner while the recipient is prepped for theatre. It is not the only hospital involved.

A telephone inquiry is all it takes to get hospital staff to admit to what’s happening (translated from Mandarin):

Q: "How many Falun Gong suppliers under the age of 40 do you have?"
A: "Quite a few."
Q: "It [the organ] was from healthy Falun Gong practitioners?"
A: "Correct, we would choose the good ones because we ensure the quality in our operation."
Q: "You choose the organs yourself?"
A: "Correct."

This conversation was recorded by former Canadian MP David Kilgour and international human rights lawyer David Matas in the course of investigating the harvesting claims. Their disturbing report, commissioned by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China, focuses on Falun Gong practitioners, though they are not the only victims.

Founded in 1992, the Falun Gong spiritual movement had by 1999 attracted some 70 million followers in China, when it was banned as a ‘heretical organisation’. All activities related to Falun Gong have since been illegal. Amnesty International reported a ‘renewed crackdown’ on Falun Gong in April 2005, with imprisoned members at ‘high risk of torture or ill-treatment’.

Kilgour calls the involuntary harvesting of prisoners’ organs "a new crime against humanity, for a new century."

Chinese authorities have repudiated the report and denied the allegations, but promise to ban trade in human organs, just in case.

Comments

  1. 10 August 2006 | 6:16 pm

    Have you looked into the veracity of Falun Gong’s claim?

    Do you know who Harry Wu is? A Chinese dissident’s independent investigation found Falun Gong’s accusation not credible:

    http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060806_1.htm

    US government’s investigation also found the allegation not credible:

    http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=April&x=20060416141157uhyggep0.5443231&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html

  2. 11 August 2006 | 9:15 pm

    Harry Wu agrees that "China takes organs from many executed prisoners every year". His main objection seems to concern the magnitude of the claims.

    Note that when I quoted the figure of 40,000 organs taken from Falun Gong practitioners, that is not 40,000 people, but multiple organs harvested from each (or most) of a smaller number of victims. None the less, Prof. Wu questions the plausibility of so many transplants occurring in so short a time.

    I am not in a position to verify the claims, but refer readers to a rebuttal by David Kilgour and David Matas to Chinese Government denials. Note also that Kilgour and Matas intend to issue a follow-up report in September with new evidence.

  3. 25 August 2006 | 11:35 am

    Bob, do you understand the serious allegations put forth in the Kilgour-Matas report on organ harvesting targeting Falun Gong practitioners across China. ( http://investigation.go.saveinter.net ) The Chinese embassy has formulated a set of contradictions similar to yours which I completely disagree with–most of it is unfounded and a direct attack on the authors of the report and the Falun Gong.

    http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-8-10/44796.html

    The free world is still waiting for China to give an explanation for the 41,500 organ transplants unaccounted for (in the report). That is telling. Have the many Falun Gong practitioners who have disappeared in China become unwilling organ donors? The answer is yes.

    I find it unfortunate that Mr. Harry Wu’s investigation in the North of China proved to be fruitless and that in turn his report is being used to discredit the Kilgour-Matas findings. Maybe his team should have gone there before March 9 when the story first broke in the Epoch Times. News reports confirm that after March 9th, the hospital site was cleaned up swiftly to hide all evidence and only later on the Communist Party officials invited the free world to come and investigate. But oddly enough the regime has refused to grant visas to anyone who asked to investigate further. Meanwhile the US State Dept. was taken through a show tour–the regime being with them every step of the way but they have kept the file opened and are still interested in the case.

    http://www.faluninfo.net/displayAnArticle.asp?ID=9452

    It’s worth mentioning that the Kilgour-Matas investigation team examined 18 pieces of evidence to draw their conclusions and that the hospital visited by the US State Dept. and Mr. Wu only accounts for a small portion of the report. Many hospitals were investigated, not just that one–so 99% of the report is not about that hospital. Moreover hospital staff openly admitted to the organ source being from the Falun Gong in 15 instances and these digital recordings have been well validated. Matas calls this practice a new from of evil on the planet. BTW the phone bills are available.

    China’s bloody harvest
    http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/issuesideas/story.html?id=6a97d044-615a-496b-b7d6-e79e36636592

    The K-M report has been well received in their travels to Brusels, Berlin, London, Washington DC with the Australian government requesting the Chinese embassy for an independent investigation to be allowed. Kilgour has met with rights organizations which are already paying close attention to this issue as is the UN.

    It is high time that Communist China be made accountable for their crimes against humanity and for the free world to reassess their take on China. As I recall China was given the 2008 Olympics on the premise that their human rights record would improve. In my eyes the well documented persecution of Falun Gong is enough to disqualify them instantly along with the reports of large scale organ harvesting which would make their record stoop to a new low.

    It’s time to quit the Party Bob! http://ninecommentaries.com

  4. 29 September 2006 | 3:59 pm

    […] BBC journalist Rupert Wingfield-Hayes has confirmed in undercover investigations what Canadians David Kilgour and David Matas reported in July. He found he could buy a human liver with as little as three weeks’ notice, owing to an increase in executions prior to the republic’s National Day on 1 October. […]

Leave a reply

Subscribe to website updates by email