On June 21, 2006, Belgian national Flemish Television VRT in a program called "Ter Zake" reported on Falun Gong and the CCP's removing organs from living Falun Gong practitioners in China. "Ter Zake" means "let's get to the point". It is a program that brings the news of each day and further elaborates specific 'hot topics' of recent news. Large numbers of people, especially politicians, watch it regularly.

Host: The next report is about Falun Gong. This is a Chinese spiritual movement that is also active in our country. She accuses the Chinese government because of the massive violations of human rights. In China, Falun Gong practitioners are being captured and also tortured. Even more, it is said that there organs are harvested and sold. Amnesty International demands an investigation, just like the members of the European Parliament.

Reporter : A somewhat strange scene in the Citadelpark in Ghent (Belgium). Approximately 20 practitioners of Falun Gong or Falun Dafa gather here every Sunday morning to meditate and exercise.

Sylvie Vellemans (a Falun Gong practitioner): "Those exercises give oneself a relaxed feeling in the first place, improve your health, dissolve blockages in your body. You feel more fit, relaxed and pure; in fact it purifies your body."

Reporter : Since the 1990s the movement gained enormously in popularity. Worldwide there are approximately about 100 million followers and the number is also growing in our country.

Nicolas Schols (The president of the Belgian Falun Gong Association): "I think that because of the superficial and materialistic modern society a lot of people are looking for something that gives their life a meaning - they are searching for something spiritual. I, for example, was very interested in the Eastern way of thinking and I found in Falun Gong something very practical. It teaches to look inside oneself while being in a conflict and to improve oneself on a spiritual path."

Nicolas Schols: This is a method that is completely free for the public, it also doesn't have an internal organization and has no worship or whatever. It only has the intention to give people something from the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance and besides that Falun Gong is completely free."

Reporter: It is indeed only in China that Falun Gong is persecuted, seriously persecuted and that for seven years. Practitioners who are arrested, end in so-called "re-education through labor camps".

Zhang Yuqing (Victim, a Chinese Falun Gong practitioner): "I was pulled into a building by policemen in plain clothes. I had to be naked and they stole all of my belongings. I was not allowed to sleep and was constantly interrogated. I was not allowed to sit or lie down, while I am more than 70 years."

Reporter: In the shadow of the European Institutions in Brussels, Falun Gong practitioners stage an activity. They want to raise awareness about a relatively unknown and gruesome practice of the Chinese Government: in concentration camps Falun Gong practitioners' organs would be seized, which are then sold at high prices to foreign patients.

Zhang Yuqing: Those practices really exist. Falun Gong practitioners are innocent but are being murdered. Their bodies are full of holes, there exist photos of this. Their family members are not allowed to see their bodies, because they are incinerated. This is not a [made up] story.

Edward McMillan-Scott, Vice-President of the European Parliament: This is pure and simple genocide -- and it's genocide for money which is one of the worst motives in history.

Reporter: Due to the enormous economic power of China, very few Western politicians dare to investigate the truth behind the story. Edward McMillan-Scott, Vice President of the European Parliament who, as he says, has no ties to Falun Gong, recently gathered his courage and traveled to China. He's the first European politician who did this and takes the case seriously.

Edward McMillan-Scott: When you are singling out a particular group -- and Falun Gong has been singled out -- organ harvesting is now a very systematic process in China. A friend of mine in Hong Kong said that a friend of his needed a new liver. He called a hospital in Shenzen and they told him: "Come right over, we'll find you one."

Reporter: a simple query on the internet tells us it's indeed easy to obtain new organs in China. Chinese hospitals promote their expertise in organ transplants on their websites. On the question where these organs come from is bluntly answered that they come from executed prisoners. While in our country it can take several years before patients find a matching organ, organ transplant tourists can, so to speak, place a quick web order here.

Edward McMillan-Scott -- What the [hospital] administrators are saying is "Yes, be assured it'll be a Falun Gong liver or kidney." And the reason they say that is because they're clean: Falun Gong don't smoke tobacco or drink alcohol, and they live a rather sort of clean life. And therefore they have a sort of premium, and it's a ghastly reward for a healthy lifestyle that they're going to be singled out.

Nicolas Schols: We are convinced that things happen in those camps that cannot bear the light of day and are very difficult to disclose. We indeed hope that footages can be released soon.

Edward McMillan-Scott: This is killing to order. And that's why so many people and I are concerned. The Chinese have no excuses. And in my view, once the international community and the UN Rapporteurs to China confirm even one case of organ harvesting, I cannot believe that the Olympics will take place in China in 2008.

Host: strangely enough the Chinese Government promises to do something about this organ trade starting next month, which is of course recognition of the problem, but about the Falun Gong not a word is said, and so this discussion will be continued.

Posting date: 7/5/2006
Original article date: 7/4/2006
Category: News & Media Reports
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/6/30/131825.html

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