Ottawa Citizen: Boycott Beijing Games: Falun Gong

By Tim Naumetz, The Ottawa Citizen

Thursday, May 31, 2007

A coalition of Falun Gong supporters is calling for a boycott of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing if the Chinese government does not allow an independent investigation of organ-harvesting allegations.

The Canadian chapter of a coalition that claims China supports the illegal harvesting of a range of organs from imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners said the boycott should begin in August unless China complies with the request.

At a Parliament Hill news conference, former Liberal MPs David Kilgour and Simma Holt, along with a group called Doctors Against Organ Harvesting, lent their support to the demand from the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong.

"It's simply impossible, in my view, to have torture and killing going on in one part of Beijing and the games going on in another part of Beijing," said Mr. Kilgour. He and Winnipeg human rights lawyer David Matas released a report last January saying they had independently confirmed allegations of Chinese organ harvesting on a "large scale" from Falun Gong practitioners.

The Chinese government denied the claims, saying it has banned the sale of human organs and allows medical transplants only with written consent under standards that protect the safety and health of patients.

But Mr. Kilgour and Mr. Matas said they found evidence Falun Gong practitioners are killed for their organs, which are sold to foreigners for "huge amounts of money."

Ms. Holt accused Trade Minister David Emerson of being complicit in organ harvesting by ignoring the allegations while supporting closer trade ties with China.

Torsten Trey, a physician with Doctors Against Organ Harvesting, compared the 2008 Beijing Games to the 1936 Olympics held in Germany only three years before the beginning of the Holocaust. "The Holocaust in China has already started," he said. "The organ harvesting of living people is just the tip of the iceberg in the persecution of Falun Gong."

[...]

Rabbi Reuven Bulka, president of the Canadian chapter of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong, said China should not object to an inquiry if the allegations are untrue.

"They shouldn't be afraid of an investigation," he said. "That's all we're asking."

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=92910296-a059-4f75-9835-8624926b2176

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/6/5/156321.html

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