August 15, 2006

(Clearwisdom.net) Falun Gong practitioners from Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania are conducting a tour to raise awareness of what they say is the persecution of their peers in China, including the "illegal organ harvesting from living victims."

Members of the spiritual movement say their peers' hearts, kidneys, livers and corneas are extracted while they are alive, then sold on the black market by Communist authorities.

Media reports say China denies the allegations.

"Thousands of innocent Falun Gong practitioners have been murdered in this fashion and reports indicated that other religious and political dissidents, including underground Christians, have also met a similar fate," practitioners said in a statement.

A news conference will take place in Louisville today at 9:30 a.m. in front of the old Jefferson County Courthouse.

The tour will also cover two other cities in Kentucky and 14 cities in Ohio, and will end up in Pittsburgh.