By Rowan Callick. August 14, 2006.
HARRY Wu, one of the most respected Chinese dissident
leaders, has cast crucial doubt on Falun Gong claims that body parts have been
extracted from 6000 followers of the sect at a secret concentration camp in
northeast China. In response, Falun Gong has branded Mr Wu, who spent 19 years
in Chinese labour camps, a "butcher" and a "senior-level Chinese
Communist spy".it's still open - which is one of the reasons why we raised
the issue; we don't know one way or the other." China killed at least 1770
of the 2184 people executed worldwide last year. But it could obtain no proof
of more executions than that.
The religious sect's organ transplant claims have become
a pivotal part of its fierce campaign against the Chinese Government, which has
outlawed the group since 1999.
Australian Foreign Affairs Department deputy secretary
David Ritchie said after the annual Australia-China human rights dialogue in
Canberra last month that Australia had raised the issue of organs being removed
from people executed in China. Mr Ritchie, leader of the Australian team at the
talks, said about the extractions claim: "We think the evidence is not necessarily
there,
Since then, for the first time in four years, the federal
Government has stopped banning the use of large banners by Falun Gong
demonstrators outside the Chinese embassy in Canberra.
The horrific Falun Gong claims were prominently presented
by a newspaper associated with the group, Epoch Times, which on March 10 said
there was a "secret Nazi-style concentration camp at Sujiatun", a
suburb of Shenyang, capital of Liaoning province. The paper said 6000 Falun
Gong followers had been sent to the camp since 2001, and that three-quarters of
them had had their hearts, kidneys, corneas and skin extracted, after which the
remains of their bodies were incinerated.
According to Amnesty International,
Falun Gong claimed its investigation "verified that
the organs were extracted from people who were still alive". The body
parts had become the principal source of China's thriving transplant market,
its report said. The grim story has been raised internationally by two
prominent Canadian human rights activists, former parliamentarian David Kilgour
and lawyer David Matas, who are not practitioners of Falun Gong.
They published a report on the issue last month after
research on behalf of a Falun Gong support group, the Coalition to Investigate
the Persecution of the Falun Gong in China. They say in their report: "We
would like to pursue further research before we come to any firm conclusions.
But based on what we now know, we have come to the regrettable conclusion that
the allegations are true. "We believe that there has been and continues
today to be large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners
for sale at high prices, sometimes to foreigners who normally face long waits
for voluntary donations of such organs in their home countries."
Mr Kilgour and Mr Matas say that of 60,000 transplants
registered by the China Medical Organ Transplant Association from 2000-05, just
18,500 sources could be identified.
But the Canadians did not visit China, and thus relied on
second-hand evidence.
Mr Wu, 69, was first arrested in 1956 for criticising the
Communist Party during the feigned period of liberalisation after Mao Zedong
said "let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought
contend".trusted contacts inside China to visit the Sujiatun area, where
they stayed for more than three weeks. Their inspections included all the
potential sites for forced extractions, including two military barracks, a
hospital that specialises in treatment for blood clots and the Kongjiashan
prison.
From 1960, Mr Wu was sent as a
"counter-revolutionary rightist" to 12 different labour camps
(laogai), where he was beaten, tortured and starved.
Earlier this year, Mr Wu's US-based Laogai Research
Foundation spent six months investigating how the Huaxi Hospital in Chengdu,
the capital of Sichuan province, was extracting organs for transplants from
executed prisoners.
The foundation and Falun Gong discussed further
co-operative investigations. But then the Falun Gong media published its
shocking claims about the Sujiatun "concentration camp". Mr Wu said:
"After reading the report carefully, I felt the (indirect testimony of)
two witnesses cited was unreliable, and that this story might be
fabricated."
He tried to contact Falun Gong's US spokesperson Zhang
Erping about the issue, but did not get a reply. He then arranged for
Mr Wu, who received photographs and written reports on
each visit, said: "None of the investigations revealed any trace of the
concentration camp."
"For more than 20 years, the Chinese Government has
extracted large numbers of organs from death-sentence prisoners," Mr Wu
said. "But a scale of 4500 live organ extractions is impossible in theory
and unfeasible in practice."
Falun Gong said four months ago: "The world cannot
wait until all the evidence becomes available, because the crimes will worsen.
Even if there is a 1 per cent probability this is true, it is worth the whole
world carefully and fully investigating."
;
mso{ O r i �$ q$ nt:2.0;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:widow-orphan'>"For
more than 20 years, the Chinese Government has extracted large numbers of
organs from death-sentence prisoners," Mr Wu said. "But a scale of
4500 live organ extractions is impossible in theory and unfeasible in
practice."
Falun
Gong said four months ago: "The world cannot wait until all the evidence becomes
available, because the crimes will worsen. Even if there is a 1 per cent
probability this is true, it is worth the whole world carefully and fully
investigating."
er� � d a �$ q$ harvesting from them?
Mr Baxter—China has acknowledged
that organs from executed prisoners are used for transplants in China. We
oppose this practice and would urge Australians to think twice before
travelling to China for transplants. In discussions with our embassy in Beijing
China’s Ministry of Health has made it clear to us that the new regulations,
which I mentioned and which came into effect on 1 May, also require prisoners to
provide written consent before their organs can be donated.
Senator NETTLE—Can you indicate how the Australian
government is urging Australians to be careful or not travel to China for organ
transplants?
Mr Baxter—What I said was that we
would urge Australians to think twice before travelling to China for
transplants. As you know, Australian citizens are not required to inform the
government of the purpose of their private travel. There is no legislation in
place that prevents Australians
from travelling to
any particular country
to undergo any
particular medical procedure, so the ability of the government to
intervene in this area is limited.
Senator NETTLE—Is there any
information, for example on the DFAT website, for people travelling to China
that raises this issue with them?
Mr Baxter—I would have to defer to
my consular colleagues who are responsible for our travel advice on that
question. I think generally there is advice on the DFAT website about some of
the problems that can attend to medical treatment in countries where the
standards are not as high as in Australia.
CHAIR—Mr Smith, do you wish to add
to that?
Mr Smith—The travel advice for China
does advise Australians that the standard of medical care and the range of
familiar medicines available in China and other destinations are often limited,
particularly outside the major cities. Beyond that, the issue of receipt of
organ transplants has not to our knowledge been a problem with Australians
travelling to China. The travel advice is very much informed by the nature of
the risks that Australians face so we have limited the language to the general
formulation that I have mentioned.
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