SooToday.com (Sault Ste. Marie, Canada): Elaine fears for her mother-in-law's life
July 19, 2006 Elaine Xie is traveling across Ontario to raise awareness of the plight of
Falun Gong practitioners in China. And to save her mother-in-law's life. Sault Ste. Marie was the last stop in her tour. Elaine (shown, left) was part of a group that stopped off at City Hall today
to inform people about the results of an independent report by two prominent
Canadians. The report, by human rights lawyer David Matas and David Kilgour former
Canadian secretary of state (Asia-Pacific), supports allegations that the
Chinese government [The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)]is harvesting
organs from living Falun Gong detainees and then cremating the donors' remains
to destroy evidence of what was done to their bodies. Xie told SooToday.com that she has a very personal connection to this effort,
both as a Falun Gong practitioner and as a deeply concerned daughter-in-law. "My mother-in-law is not a Falun Gong practitioner but she wrote a
letter asking the government to stop persecuting them," said Xie.
"They kidnapped her and put her in jail." She said her mother-in-law is now 52 and has been in a detention camp for two
years, with another six to go. Xie said her husband is very close to his mother and was distraught at the
news of her imprisonment, which he learned on his birthday. "They tortured her," she said. "They have so far been allowing
my mother-in-law's youngest sister to see her once a month and she told us that
they injected my mother-in-law with psychotropic drugs that caused her to lose
much of her memory and to be very unresponsive." Shown are Xie, Anne Zuo, James Yang, Tian Qi Li and Lisa Wang who are
participating in a car tour to promote awareness of Falun Gong among Canadians. They're asking people to sign their petition calling for action to prevent
any further persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. After reading a statement from the steps of City Hall, Xie and her traveling
companions spoke privately, in separate meetings with representatives of the
offices of Mayor John Rowswell, MP Tony Martin and MPP David Orazietti. Following those meetings, the traveling group learned of and met up with some
local Falun Gong participants at Clergue Park. Local practitioner Sue Kinnaird was very happy to meet the travelers and to
learn more about other practitioners in Canada. "We don't have any membership fees or restrictions and you can come and
go as you please," Kinnaird said. "Often people practice independently
so we might not know about each other but it's nice to get together as a group
and practice sometimes." Kinnaird, Xie and their fellow practitioners completed a group exercise
together before the traveling group left to head home to Toronto. Xie said that the people of China few human rights and little hope of a happy
future or control over their own lives. She said that many have turned to Falun Gong for solace, hope and guidance in
personal growth. [...] The independent study completed recently by David Matas and David Kilgour
says that at least 40,500 Falun Gong prisoners are missing and are likely to
have been killed to contribute to a large number of mysterious organ transplants
recorded in China. It says that transplantation websites promising short waiting times and
guaranteed organ matches have been operating from Chinese hospitals for at least
five years and that these hospitals cannot account for sources of their donor
organs. Estimates vary, but independent sources including Amnesty International say
that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are detained for at least
short periods of time each year, and that significant numbers of these are
unaccounted for even years later or have been killed. The site says that these detentions usually involve re-education by labor or
by abuse designed to convince practitioners to renounce their beliefs. "Amnesty International is calling on the Chinese government to stop the
mass arbitrary detentions, unfair trials and other human rights violations
resulting from the crackdown on the Falun Gong and other groups branded by the
government as 'heretical organizations'," says the organization. [...]
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