FDI: Amidst the Evidence, Denying Sujiatun Organ Trafficking Must Not Stand

NEW YORK (FDI) -- According to a March 28 Associated Press report, the Chinese Communist regime has denied the existence of a Sujiatun concentration camp. Sources indicate thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been held in Sujiatun, and, these sources say, that as many as three quarters of them were cremated after their organs were removed.

Faced with gory accounts of organs being systematically removed from live and barely anaesthetized prisoners, we all wish the information were false. Extraordinary acts of evil have never been easy to believe -- how could humans possibly do such things to each another?

Unfortunately, details disclosed by these sources and an overwhelming body of supporting information suggests the fundamentals of the story -- that a large number of Falun Gong practitioners were, and perhaps many still are, being held in the Sujiatun area to harvest their organs -- is true, and demands an immediate, unrestricted international investigation.

First, information about Sujiatun has come from multiple sources who have provided consistent accounts. A Chinese reporter who had worked for a Japanese news agency broke the story on March 9. Next, a woman who had worked at the Sujiatun hospital in which the organs are said to be removed from prisoners in the adjoining concentration camp stepped forward. She says her ex-husband had been responsible for removing corneas from live Falun Gong prisoners there.

The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) has since conducted its own investigation, obtaining additional information. Moreover, since The Epoch Times broke the story two weeks ago, the Falun Dafa Information Center has learned that several Chinese readers have contacted the paper, citing experiences that support the original accounts.

Second, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a well-documented practice of organ harvesting without prior consent, often from executed prisoners. Reports of this practice have appeared in leading newspapers and been the subject of U.S. congressional hearings.

Third, removal of organs from Falun Gong practitioners killed in custody has already been documented. Since 1999, the CCP has routinely tortured and killed Falun Gong practitioners, a fact recognized by Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department's annual reports (report). A Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group report (report) details specific cases in which organs were removed from the bodies of Falun Gong practitioners who had been tortured to death.

Sadly, the information revealed about Sujiatun fits in exactly with the CCP's pattern of disregard for human life. After banning Falun Gong in 1999, former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin said: "no means are too extreme to eliminate Falun Gong." Police officers regularly tell prisoners that "when a Falun Gong practitioner dies in jail it counts as null and is considered suicide."

There are other disturbing statistics. According to a Chinese-language health website, www.hbver.com, beginning in 2000, the total number of liver transplants in China almost doubled each year. Today China's International Transplantation Network Assistance Center (http://en.zoukiishoku.com) boasts that a suitable kidney donor can be found in 1-4 weeks. If the first organ is found by the doctor to be unsuitable, a new organ will be offered "in one week." At the same time, there are hundreds, if not thousands of reports of Falun Gong practitioners in China who say family members who had been abducted by police have never been heard from again. Why have they all gone?

The timing of the CCP's denial is also suspicious. Why did the regime wait for over two weeks to deny Sujiatun? And why did the CCP, after years of known illicit organ trafficking but just weeks after Sujiatun was revealed, also today suddenly announce a new law against organ trafficking?

We call for a thorough and real investigation, not a show tour, by independent international organizations, allowing a WOIPFG researcher immediate and unrestricted access to the entire area. Anything short of complete access is a cover up.

We also urge journalists in Beijing and around the world to dig into the story, and include the facts of organ harvesting that are already widely known in your reports. Quotes from representatives of the Chinese regime alone do not constitute real news. We encourage you to find out what is really happening, and report the truth.

# # #

PRESS STATEMENT - Mar. 28, 2006
Falun Dafa Information Center, www.faluninfo.net

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER
Contacts: Gail Rachlin (+1 917-757-9780), Levi Browde (+1 646-415-0998), Erping Zhang (+1 646-533-6147), or Christina Chai (+1 917-386-5068).
Fax: 646-792-3916 Email: , Website: http://www.faluninfo.net/

 Yearly Archive   Printer Version