Portage Daily Graphic (Manitoba, Canada): Falun Gong Raising Awareness About Human Rights Violations

By Shannon Vanraes, The Daily Graphic

July 27, 2006 Thursday

Torture, forced labour, organ harvesting and murder are among the serious allegations made by a Canadian human rights lawyer, a former Canadian secretary of state for Asia Pacific and Falun Gong practitioners against the Chinese government.

Practitioners of the spiritual Falun Gong movement are travelling across Canada and made a stop in Portage la Prairie yesterday to meet with Mayor Ian MacKenzie. Their goal is to raise awareness of human rights violations taking place under the Communist Party of China. The team of four travelled here from Toronto and urged local residents to pressure politicians into action, while distributing information about their cause.

"We want people to write their MLAs, MPPs and MPs and let them know we want the government to help end these horrific crimes," said Dana Zhao, director of the visiting team and a Falun Gong practitioner for the past three years.

"I think we had a very enlightening meeting," said MacKenzie after speaking with the peaceful demonstrators. He added he plans to pass along the information he received to all city councillors.

Some Canadian cities, such as Oshawa, Ont., have passed resolutions condemning China's persecution of those who practice Falun Gong. That action, Zhao said, sends a strong message to Canada's federal government to take action and investigate further.

The most recent, and perhaps the most shocking, allegation against China's communist leadership is it is harvesting organs from Falun Gong prisoners, which are then sold on the international market at a great profit.

"It is confirmed in China that these crimes took place against these people (Falun Gong followers)," claims Clement Sun, another of the Falun Gong practitioners who travelled to Portage yesterday.

The most compelling evidence the Chinese government is forcibly removing the organs of political prisoners comes from an independent investigation conducted by David Kilgour, a former Canadian MP and Canadian secretary of state for Asia Pacific, and Winnipeg human rights lawyer David Matas.
A report based on their investigation was released on July 6 and concluded, "Based on what we now know, we have come to the regrettable conclusion that the allegations are true. We believe that there has been and continues today to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners."

Sun said according to the report, at least 40,500 Falun Gong prisoners are missing, a number which is linked to the large amount of sketchy organ transplants that have been recorded in the Communist country.

He noted the persecution began seven years ago when the communist government began to perceive the Falun Gong movement as a threat, although the movement isn't a political one.

"It's a life exercise," said Sun, who emphasized Falun Gong is not a religion and is free to learn.

Sometimes called Falun Dafa, the practice of Falun Gong is based on truthfulness, compassion and tolerance and includes five key exercises combined with meditation.

Falun Gong was first introduced to the public by its founder, Li Hongzhi, in May of 1992. Since that time, it has spread to nearly 60 counties with more than 100 million people practicing it.

Li Hongzhi was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2001.

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