By a Falun Dafa practitioner in Canada

(Clearwisdom.net) Since the atrocities of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners for profit were exposed to the public in March 2006, the international community have paid great attention to and condemned it. Two Canadian independent investigators, former Canadian MP and Secretary of State for Asia and Pacific David Kilgour and international human rights lawyer David Matas, released their detailed investigative report in July 2006 after two months' investigation. Their investigation verified this allegation. On January 25 to 26, 2007, at the invitation of Alberta Falun Dafa Association in Canada, David Kilgour, David Matas, and the director of the Association for Asia Research Mr. Erping Zhang held two forums in Edmonton and Calgary. They held a discussion and exchanged opinions with the attendees on the CCP's harvesting and selling organs from living Falun Gong practitioners, human rights issues in China and other aspects. All attendees were shocked at the CCP's brutal persecution of Falun Gong.

Forum in Calgary

David Kilgour speaks at the forum in Edmonton

According to David Kilgour, the forum themed "Human Rights, Rule of Law, Justice and Illicit Organ Snatching and Transplant Crimes in China," is one part of David Matas' and his global speech tour on "Illicit Organ Snatching and Transplant Crimes in China." At present, Matas and Kilgour have traveled to four continents, including countries and regions, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Swiss United Nations Human Rights Commission and other places to present their reports. The audience and the media have given them positive responses. Many government officials have expressed serious concerns to the CCP officials regarding harvesting organs of living Falun Gong practitioners that is happening in China.

At the forum, Mr. Erping Zhang gave a speech first. He talked about the current situation of the CCP regime undermining traditional culture and persecuting groups of different beliefs. He introduced to the audience the CCP's suppression, damage and destruction of religious beliefs and traditional culture in the past several dozen years. Since the CCP started the persecution of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, many cultivators have died as a result of the persecution. Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Zhao Xin was one of those who have died as a result of the persecution for appealing for Falun Gong. The persecution is still going on. As it is investigated, organs of Falun Gong practitioners were harvested while they were still alive. The police, public security, and the military all have participated in the organ trafficking. The CCP's constitution claims that people enjoy freedom of belief, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. But the actual situation is not so. If you exercise these freedoms, you will meet with trouble.

Matas analyzed the CCP's constitution and legal system and expressed that the CCP is actually a one party dictatorship. He further pointed out that in mainland China, it is an indisputable fact that there are a large number of Falun Gong practitioners whose organs have been harvested while they were still alive. Since the release of the "Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong.

Practitioners in China" in July last year, during the following six months, they have done further evidence collection work, and the new investigative report will be released at the end of January. Matas also pointed out that the Chinese government's recent claim that "a large number of organs are from executed prisoners" is not valid. He found that the annual number of executed prisoners is very stable, but it is unexplainable that the number of organ transplants has been soared since the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999.

Mr. Liu who is a PhD candidate at the University of Calgary exposed the CCP's brutal persecution of Falun Gong with his own experience. Before arriving in Canada in 2005, he had been arrested and detained numerous times by the CCP police and had to suspend his schooling. Physical torture and mental torment put him in an endless painful situation, as it continues to today. He said that Falun Gong practitioners who have been illegally arrested and detained by the CCP do not have any life guarantee at all. He particularly pointed out that while being illegally incarcerated in prisons, all Falun Gong practitioners are forced to have a comprehensive physical check-up, including blood types, conditions of all vital organs and so on. After the exposure of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners, he came to understand that Falun Gong practitioners who have been illegally incarcerated have been taken as a bank of live organs. He still remembered some Falun Gong practitioners whom he had met in detention centers. They had gone to Beijing to appeal on behalf of Falun Gong. They only wanted to tell their experiences of physical and mental benefits after practicing Falun Gong, but the police arrested, detained, and beat them. The practitioners firmly refused to tell the police their names and home addresses (they didn't want to implicate their relatives and friends into the CCP's persecution). Later, some practitioners disappeared. It was said that they were sent to specially-built concentration camps, which are the CCP's banks of organs for transplantation. Mr. Liu's wife is still illegally incarcerated in a prison in Beijing. Since he came to Canada, Mr. Liu has been unable to directly contact her for a long time. Mr. Liu's personal experience touched many people at the forum. Many people extended regards to him after the forum and wished him to be reunited with his family soon.

More than a hundred people attended the forums held at the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary. These people included provincial MLAs, democrats, university teachers and students, researchers from hospitals and some people who are concerned about the human rights issues in China. They also had a discussion with speakers on CCP's human rights issues, stopping the persecution of Falun Gong, boycotting going to the mainland China for organ transplants and some other issues.

After the forums, MLA of Alberta Bharat Agnihotri said while having an interview with reporters that it was the first time for him to hear that organs of Falun Gong practitioners have been harvested while they were still alive. It is horrifying. He thought that Falun Gong is good for health, governments should support and promote it. He said that stopping the persecution is not only a matter of the federal government, as international citizens, we are all responsible to speak out, and the governments should also use diplomatic means to help stop the crimes.

When talking about the issue that some Canadians are concerned that human rights diplomacy may affect trade with China, he said he did not worry about the conflict between human rights and trade. He would like to talk about this matter (the CCP's live organ harvesting) with other MLAs, and help Falun Gong student groups make reports or hold forums for provincial MLAs.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/1/31/147977.html