July 9, 2006
They call it an atrocious crime against human rights. To drive the point home, local Falun Gong practitioners staged a gruesome mock surgery outside Eau Claire Market Saturday afternoon.
Dressed in smocks, four members of the spiritual movement pretended to extract organs from a person lying on a table.
"I cannot even describe how bizarre this has been for me," said Toronto-based Falun Gong advocate Jan Jekielek, 32. "My people have been used for their organs."
A Canadian report released Thursday claimed the Chinese government has been harvesting body parts from Falun Gong prisoners.
Compiled by Winnipeg human rights lawyer David Matas and former Liberal cabinet minister David Kilgour, the report included testimonies from witnesses in China.
Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that combines meditation with ancient philosophies, has been outlawed in China since 1999.
The report said of the 60,000 transplants in China which occurred between 2000 and 2005, 41,500 procedures used organs from unexplained sources.
[...]
University of Calgary graduate student Winston Liu, 34, who was jailed in China for three years before he moved to Canada, said he was forced to undergo a thorough physical checkup during his imprisonment in the province of Shanxi.
"Back then, I didn't know why," he said. "But now I think this is the exact reason."
Liu said he never witnessed any of the alleged practices, but had often heard prison guards speak about "a secret place" of no return.
During Saturday's demonstration, the dozen participants urged passersby to call their elected officials.
"I would like to see a resolution passed by Parliament condemning this practice," said Jekielek.
He also suggested Canadian universities bar Chinese medical students from studying transplant procedures.
[...]
Category: Organ Harvesting
