By a Falun Dafa practitioner in New York

(Clearwisdom.net) On June 5, 2007, a forum and press conference entitled "Exposing Organ Harvesting in China" were held at the New York State Capitol in Albany, New York. Assemblymen Michael Benjamin and John McEneny hosted the forum. Canadian former State Secretary for Asia-Pacific David Kilgour and Dr. Wang Wenyi were the main speakers. A number of members of both the Senate and House of Representatives, and their assistants, and people from all circles attended the forum.

Assemblyman John McEneny hosts the forum

Assemblyman Michael Benjamin: The world needs paying attention to the human rights persecution in China.

Falun Gong practitioner Hu Haitao recounts his wife Chen Jing's experience of being forced to have a physical checkup and blood test in a forced labor camp in China

Audience listens carefully to the evidence about the CCP's harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners

Assemblyman John McEneny first stated the significance of the forum. He said that the New York State Government is very concerned about the organ transplant recipients, and that their families have the right to know the source of the organs. Mr. David Kilgour conducted an elaborate investigation regarding the source of these organs for transplants.

Assemblyman Michael Benjamin mentioned that he had been paying attention to the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and live organ harvesting happening in China for the past few years. He said that more and more Americans go to China for organ transplants, the source of the organs is worrisome, and everyone knows that the CCP has been abusing prisoners and Falun Gong practitioners over the past years. Taking this opportunity to raise such a question at the forum, he hoped to raise people's awareness of the situation.

Former Canadian State Secretary for Asia-Pacific David Kilgour introduced the independent investigative report written by himself and renowned human rights lawyer David Matas regarding the CCP's harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. Kilgour said that he respects the Chinese people very much. "China" is the Chinese people but not the CCP regime. The CCP has killed a large number of Falun Gong practitioners, and harvested their organs, and has committed unpardonable crimes. Falun Gong practitioners follow "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" to be good people, but they are arrested and incarcerated in prisons, forced to work for long hours, and forced to have their blood tested and have physical checkups. Within five years, through investigation, it has been concluded that at least 41,500 organs originated from Falun Gong practitioners. The independent investigative report provides 33 types of undeniable evidence. The CCP has not responded to these investigations, and moreover they announced that no more trade in organ transplants will be allowed after May 1, 2007. This act amounts to acknowledgment of the investigation.

Falun Gong practitioner Xu Haitao introduced to the attendees and the media the situation regarding his Falun Gong practitioner wife Chen Jing's experience of being persecuted, and being forced to have physical checkups and blood tests in China. During her illegal detention, Chen Jing was forced to have blood tests twice. On November 30, 2002, Chen Jing was transferred from the Zhuhai City No. 2 Detention Center to Shaoguan Prison in Guangdong Province. There were over ten people together with her who were transferred. Nine of them were Falun Gong practitioners (four of them were Tsinghua University students.) Only Falun Gong practitioners were forced to have physical checkups in prison hospital, and other criminals were not. The checkup included chest x-rays and blood tests. When asking the police why physical checkups were being performed, the police answered that it was a routine check. In April 2003, Chen Jing was transferred to Guangdong Province Women's Prison, and during the detention, she again was forced to have a chest x-ray and blood test.

On October 10, 2006, when Canadian independent investigation member Mr. David Matas held press conference and forum in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, introducing the investigative report on the CCP's harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners, Chen Jing attended and testified. This April, the Zhanjiang City 610 Office in Guangdong Province, where Chen Jing's family resides, sent some agents to Chen Jing's older brother's workplace, threatening that the 610 Office knows that Chen Jing is in Malaysia and that she testified regarding live organ harvesting. The agents asked Chenjing's brother to "break the relationship with her." They also asked him to send a message to Chen Jing, telling her to stop all similar activities, otherwise, "Some special agents may make a car accident or use other means to cause her to vaporize from the human world."

At the press conference Dr. Wang Wenyi called on the New York State Government to help stop the atrocity. She hoped that everyone would read carefully the investigative report written by David Kilgour and David Matas, particularly taking note of the section about the source of organs in the report. Falun Gong practitioners who have been incarcerated on a large scale and suffering persecution are the source of these organs. As a professional medical worker, she called on the American government to be concerned about the persecution, and jointly stop the inhumane acts. She suggested that government departments suggest that doctors not encourage patients to go to China for organ transplants. The government could make a law prohibiting those agents or intermediators from introducing patients to China organ transplants.

Assemblyman Michael Benjamin said that sixty years ago, the Nazis in Germany killed the Jewish people. Today, people must learn a lesson from this event taking place sixty years ago, and avoid repeating the same thing. At present, China is rising as a super economic power, but the world needs to pay attention to China's human rights persecution. The CCP is playing a "double face" game. On the surface, what it displays is the economy, but in the dark recesses, it uses its centralized power to suppress its people. It attempts to control people, by using threats, intimidation, killing and illegal organ harvesting.

A member of the assembly asked if the World Health Organization has been aware of this. Mr. Kilgour answered that the World Health Organization raised this issue to the CCP regime three months ago, but the CCP denied it. Dr. Wang Wenyi said that even though the CCP denied this issue, the CCP has made several relevant laws, which shows that the CCP knows the existence of the issue. Another state assembly member said that this is an international issue, and asked what the New York State Government could do, so as to raise awareness of the media and people. Kilgour suggested the Health Department should find out how many New York people have been to China for organ transplants, so that people will learn how many organ suppliers related to New York State were murdered.

Senator James S. Alesi said that he has been thinking that organs for transplantation are from dead people, but has never realized that these organs are from living Falun Gong practitioners. He thought the most important thing right now would be to educate the medical field and all people to be concerned about this bloody atrocity of living organ harvesting. Any group, any organization in the international community should not encourage people to go to China for organ transplants. This is the worst thing happening in the world. He said he would try his best to stop such terrible things from going on.

Finally, assemblymen John McEneny said that he had just heard that American citizen Leejun Taylor's 73 year-old mother was arrested by National Security agents in Beijing China for practicing Falun Gong. He said that this is not only a matter of a Chinese citizen, but actually affects American citizens. Falun Gong has been persecuted in China for nearly eight years, and organ transplants involve huge lucrative interests. This is a very unfortunate large-scale event.

The forum attracted attention from several media outlets, including the New York Times, Times Union, FoxNews, and the Legislative Gazette. They conducted interviews and reports on the spot.

Posting date: 6/7/2007
Original article date: 6/7/2007
Category: Worldwide Support
Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/6/6/156386.html

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