News and Events from around the World -- May 23, 2007

Issued by Clearwisdom Net

Content

  • Germany: Falun Gong Practitioners Request a Public EU-China Human Rights Dialog

  • Toronto Forum: Organ Harvesting Is a Holocaust

  • San Francisco: International Conference of American Thoracic Society Held, Doctors from China Learn about the Truth 



  • Germany: Falun Gong Practitioners Request a Public EU-China Human Rights Dialog

    On May 14, 2007, one day before the European Union and Chinese Communist Party opened their human rights dialog, European Falun Gong practitioners assembled at Pariser Platzm, in front of Brandenburger Tor in Berlin to request that the dialog should involve everyone's human rights in China. They also appealed to the European Union to publicly condemn the Chinese Communist Party for trampling the Chinese people's human rights.

    The practitioners were supported by human rights organizations such as Association for Threatened People, International Human Rights Organization, Human Rights Without Borders and the Chinese Free Culture Movement. The vice-president of the European parliament, Edward McMillan-Scott, gave a speech.

    Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott, Vice President of the European Parliament

    Demonstrating the exercises

    Re-enacting organ harvesting

    Vice President of the European Parliament: Every Country Should Support Falun Gong Practitioners

    Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott planned to participate in the human rights dialog on May 15 and 16 in Berlin. He said in his speech that he personally heard testimony about organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China, and he thought the Canadian report about organ harvesting was absolutely credible. Therefore he emphasized once more that the Chinese Communist Party, because of its violations of human rights, should be disqualified from conducting the 2008 Olympic Games. He said: "I'd like to tell everyone precisely that the Olympic Games in 2008 should not be hosted in China. At least the human rights special commissioners of the United Nations should be permitted to launch an independent investigation into the Chinese detention centers, the reeducation and labor camps, the jails and the police stations. Also, I propose this week's human rights dialog should be suspended."He called for all the governments of the world to stand up to support Falun Gong. He said: "China is controlled by a dictatorship, in which barbaric and cruel political power rules. The persecution of people because of their beliefs will very possibly cause the Chinese Communist Party's downfall, very much like religion caused the disintegration of communism in Eastern Europe. We now stand in front of the Berlin Wall, which used to represent the splitting of Europe. For tens of thousands of Chinese people, even millions of Chinese people who have been detained in labor camps, we hope the CCP regime will fall from power as soon as possible. In addition, other countries of the world should all support Falun Gong practitioners who have suffered the most torture from the CCP.

    Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott also emphasized that he will make a special appeal for three Chinese people. He said: "Today as I am making this speech, Gao Zhisheng, Niu Jinping's wife Zhang Liangying and Cao Dong are being persecuted. I will continue to appeal to the highest organizations of the United Nations in New York, to the European Union authorities in Brussels, as well as to other governments. Among these people, Zhang Liangying and Cao Dong are Falun Gong practitioners. Gao Zhisheng is persecuted because he submitted written statements three times to the Chinese Communist Party high officials, thus he was illegally sentenced by the Chinese Communist Party and placed under surveillance in his home."

    Vice President of the European Falun Gong Society Requests Public Human Rights Dialog

    Wu Wenxi, the vice president of the European Falun Gong Society, said that practitioners would be conducting three day-long petition activities in the hope that the European Union could persuade the Chinese Communist Party to stop persecuting Falun Gong. Simultaneously, the human rights dialog should be carried out publicly in Europe, and they should invite Falun Gong practitioners who have been persecuted to attend and provide testimony.

    President of International Human Rights Organization: The Human Rights Criminals Should be Delivered to the Court

    Karl Hafen, the president of the International Human Rights Organization, believes that the death penalty, torture, forced labor camps, persecution and other serious human rights infringements are still happening in China. Therefore the human rights dialog with China must not be carried on privately. All the essential diplomatic channels should be used to make China's incumbent and future leaders acknowledge their mistakes and apologize publicly, guarantee human rights and deliver the human rights criminals to the court.

    President of the Association of World Citizens: Stopping the Persecution is a Necessary Step to Show Respect for the Value of Human Rights

    Rene Wadlow, the president of the Association of World Citizens, and a representative of the United Nation said in his letter to Falun Gong practitioners: "I can be with you only in the spirit of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance, in your important efforts to protect the practitioners of Falun Gong. I stand together with you. Since 22nd July, 1999, when the persecution started, practitioners of Falun Gong have been arrested and tortured leading to cases of death. They lost their jobs, pension and were forced to give up their belief. The Falun Gong practitioners were often put into the labour camps without trial. The Laogai system of administrative detention is the weakest link in the Chinese legal system."Also, Member of the National Assembly in Switzerland, Oskar Freysinger, and the Chinese Free Culture Movement's public letters were announced at the assembly. They requested that the human rights dialogs since 1996 should be made public and the Chinese Communist Party should publicly apologize for its human rights infringements. Otherwise, the human rights dialog could become the Chinese Communist Party's accomplice because of our hypocrisy and timidity. It would be better to stop this kind of dialog by the European Union.



    Toronto Forum: Organ Harvesting Is a Holocaust

    In the afternoon of May 17, a forum titled "BLOODY HARVEST: 'A New Form of Evil on Our Planet'" was held in the University of Toronto's Medical Science Building. The forum was organized by Doctors Against Organ Harvesting and University of Toronto China Research Association, and guest speakers included David Kilgour, former MP and Secretary of State, co-author of "Bloody Harvest," Torsten Trey, MD, Cardiologist, founding member & spokesman for Doctors, and Mr. Erping Zhang, Falun Gong spokesperson.

    Forum host Gerry Koffman, a Toronto general practitioner and member of Doctors Against Organ Harvesting: This is a Holocaust, no question about it

    MD Torsten Trey, spokesperson for Doctors Against Organ Harvesting at the forum

    A medical professional from the audience: Falun Gong practitioners are so peaceful and kind, no one has the right to harvest organs from them

    "There's a Holocaust Happening in China"

    Toronto family doctor Gerry Koffman moderated the forum. He told the audience that the widespread organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners is a genocide. "This is a Holocaust, no question about it." Koffman said.

    Dr. Koffman has practiced medicine for 35 years. He said that he ran into an Epoch Times article about organ harvesting. After did his own online investigation, he decided to join the Doctors Against Organ Harvesting group.

    Koffman said that organ harvesting is a Holocaust in China. "I am a Jew, and many of my family members died in Nazi's concentration camps. Facing such atrocities, conscience forbids me from remaining silence."

    China Must Have a Pool of Living Donors

    Dr. Torsten Trey is a founding member of Doctors against Organ Harvesting. In his speech, he discussed several important evidences of the Chinese Communist Party's atrocities of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners.

    Citing a report from Phoenix TV, Dr. Trey pointed out that there were only 106 kidney transplant centers among which 22 centers were capable of performing liver transplants. Several years later, the total number of kidney transplant centers jumped to 368 among which 200 centers were capable of performing liver transplants. Referring to a China Daily report, Dr. Trey said that Chinese doctors performed 20,000 organ transplants in 2005.

    He went on to add that the large numbers of unaccounted organs are especially remarkable since China is a society that is traditionally reluctant to donate organs, and does not have a organ transparent donation program.

    The situation in China is that donors are waiting in line for a recipient, said Dr. Trey, adding that there must be a pool of living donors. He mentioned an ad found in April 2006, published in a Chinese newspaper, advertising: "Twenty organ transplants free of charge" at the Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, for which people could register by calling the hospital's hotline.

    Testimony of Practitioner

    Falun Gong practitioner Dai Ying was unlawfully detained in China for 5 years. At the forum, she recounted her personal experience in Sanshui Labor Camp.


    At the labor amp, she was subjected to beating, sleep deprivation, and many other tortures. In May 2004, the authorities took a blood sample from her for testing and examined her whole body. She also witnessed that more than 160 practitioner inmates who were also subjected to the same examination.

    Guards claimed that the examination was conducted because the Chinese Government was especially concerned for practitioners' health. Ironically, the special care goes hand in hand with brutal torture.

    "They even took an X-ray on me in a bus used to transport us." Dai Ying said.

    Trey Called for Actions to End Organ Harvesting Atrocities

    Dr. Treston Trey emphasized that the Doctors against Organ Harvesting was formed by doctors to safeguard the ethical standards in medicine. He stressed that even though this practice is taking place in China, it nevertheless affects the whole world, especially the medical profession.

    Dr. Trey described how this is a threat to the ethical standards in medicine worldwide, and should not be seen as an isolated issue.

    Each recipient going to China asking for an organ is causing the death of a healthy, living person.

    That is why his organization is issuing an urgent call to the medical community to inform patients who are considering China for an organ transplant of the implications of their actions.

    At the end of his speech, Trey appealed: Medical periodicals should not accept articles from China on organ transplants as those practices should not become part of medical knowledge; doctors should inform your patients about these issues so that they will not lose trust in this profession; everyone should take action to help end the organ harvesting atrocities in China.

    A medial professional from the audience shared her thoughts at the forum. She said that all patients waiting for organs should be informed of the sources of organs. There must be many people who don't know of these atrocities. Otherwise, they wouldn't have accepted those organs, especially organs from Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong practitioners are so peaceful and kind, no one has the right to remove organs from their bodies.


    San Francisco: International Conference of American Thoracic Society Held, Doctors from China Learn about the Truth

    International Conference of the American Thoracic Society was held on May 18 to 23, 2007 in San Francisco. More than 14,000 clinicians and researches from 90 countries gathered at Moscone Center to attend the six-day academic exchange. On May 20, Sunday, a number of Falun Gong practitioners from the Bay Area took this opportunity to clarify the facts about Falun Gong's being practiced in over 80 countries and the brutal persecution of Falun Gong in China to the attendees.

    Telling the attendees of the conference about the CCP's atrocities

    Many doctors from China attended the American Thoracic Society Annual Conference. According to a doctor from a province in China, nearly a hundred doctors from his province came to attend the conference.

    Doctor Fan from China felt puzzled upon learning that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is still persecuting Falun Gong. He thought it had passed since the media in China has no longer mentioned it, and nobody mentioned it again. He mentioned that a doctor in his hospital once practiced Falun Gong. Since Jiang started the persecution of Falun Gong, the doctor was under control and suppression.

    When Doctor Fan learned about the CCP's atrocity of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners, he was shocked. He said, "The CCP is so bad, too cruel!"

    Doctor Fan said that he was not involved in organ transplants, but he knew that whenever the police in China executes detainees, hospitals would be notified to go to the scene for organs. This has been an open "secret" in China.

    When Doctor Fan learned about the CCP's brutality and the current tide of quitting the CCP, he immediately announced his withdrawal from the CCP's Youth League and Young Pioneer.

    Director of lung transplantation at University of Virginia, associate professor Mark Robbins, said to this reporter that the medical center where he works conducts about 35 lung transplant operations per year. The waiting time for the patient to obtain an organ is about six months or so. The source of the organs are from brain dead persons, such as people who were in serious car accidents. The deceased must have consented of donating organs after death, usually the donor's driving license specifies this.

    Mr. Robbins expressed his concern over the cases of live organ harvesting taking place in China. It is unethical to harvest organs from detained death row prisoners. Moreover, Mr. Robbins said that even though the waiting time for organs in China is short, he did not encourage his patients to go to China for organ transplants. He said that there are many problems with that. He accepted the investigation report written by the Canadian investigation team regarding the CCP harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners for profit.

    Doctor Peter from London said he had heard about the persecution of Falun Gong in China, but did not know that the CCP even harvests organs from living Falun Gong practitioners to sell. Peter said, "Communism is tyranny, the government forces people to do things, but individuals do not have any rights." He hoped that China will resolve these problems and he wants to revisit China.

    Doctor Andrew from Singapore saw the display boards depicting the CCP harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners and said that it is a tragedy that the CCP harvests organs from living people. He said, "You open up such a forum for people to learn about the facts, this is so wonderful."