Issued by Clearwisdom Net

On September 20, Manfred Nowak, United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Torture, spoke to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and described what he sees as the widespread use of torture in the People's Republic of China (PRC). During the discussion time after Mr. Manfred's speech, David Kilgour, coauthor of the Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China," spoke to the audience and pointed out that the Chinese Communist regime’s brutal persecution of Falun Gong is appalling.

Kilgour spoke to U.N. Human Rights Council

Kilgour said: "Regarding whether or not the Chinese Communist regime has been harvesting organs from Falun Gong practitioners and then cremates the remains to destroy evidence, human rights attorney David Matas and I jointly released an investigation report in July. In our report, we have come to the regrettable conclusion that the allegations are true. We carefully assessed 18 different elements of proof or disproof."

Kilgour said that many Falun Gong practitioners detained in Chinese prisons have been subjected to blood tests and physical exam. Because they at the same time have been subjected to torture and slander, he pointed out that such physical exams are not prompted by the authority’s concern for practitioners' health.

Kilgour also highlighted the fact that the waiting time to obtain matching organs is extremely short in China: just a few days or several weeks comparing to several months or even several years in other countries. "This suggests that there is a large live organ bank in China," Kilgour said.

The Canadian independent investigation report has raised wide attention from the international community, and many human rights organizations and renowned public figures have expressed their support to further investigation into these atrocities.

Bu Dongwei, a staff member of the Beijing office of the U.S. Asia Foundation, was recently sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ "Re-education through Labor." Amnesty International said that Bu is a prisoner of conscience and called on action to rescue him.

According to a report by the Voice of America on September 21, Bu Dongwei, 38, is a staff member of the Beijing Office of the San Francisco-based U.S. Asia Foundation and is also a Falun Gong practitioner. He was arrested on May 19, and his family received a notice of forced labor reeducation from the Beijing Public Security Bureau in August.

Amnesty International Considers Bu Dongwei a Prisoner of Conscience

At its Urgent Action Network, Amnesty International said that Bu Dongwei's sentence is in connection with his activities as a practitioner of Falun Gong. Bu is currently being detained at an undisclosed location. The organization stated: "Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience. He is at serious risk of torture or ill-treatment."

Wife to Fight for Administrative Reappraisal

In Los Angeles, Mr. Bu's wife Lou Hongwei said that family members have never been allowed to visit Bu since he was arrested in May. Lou said that she is applying for an administrative reappraisal, even though the labor reeducation authority claimed that Bu had signed a letter pledging no appeal.

Ms. Lou said: "It is impossible for a person who has been unlawfully detained to pledge that he will not apply for reappraisal. In addition, I haven't seen him in person and how I can know the authority is telling the truth?"

Ms. Lou said: "I cannot say that he has been abused because I haven't seen him in person so far. However, if the no-appeal letter is real, I am sure that he was forced to write that under tremendous mental pressure."