On August 17, a seminar on organ harvesting was held at the New South Wales State The State Representative Concerned about Human At the beginning of the seminar, Gordon Moyes, member Vice-President of the European Parliament: The CCP's Organ In his speech, Edward McMillan-Scott, Edward In Australia, people need to wait McMillan-Scott said that Kilgour and Kilgour: The Chinese Communist Regime's Empty Refute Former senior Canadian MP Kilgour told the audience that their report has received great After listening to Kilgour's speech, one seminar attendee Trade Should Not Sacrifice Human Rights When some Kilgour A local city council At the seminar, a lawyer suggested that everyone in the meeting At The discussion portion of the seminar was very dynamic and the whole
Parliament. The seminar was hosted by Phil Glendenning, director of the Edmund
Rice Center. Former Canadian Secretary of State, David Kilgour and Edward McMillan-Scott,
Vice President of the European Parliament, were the keynote speakers. The parliament
hall was packed with state representatives, lawyers, doctors, professors and representatives
from human rights groups. Some people stood throughout the session to listen to
the discussion, as all seats were taken. The exposed Chinese Communist Party's
(CCP) atrocities of organ harvesting shocked the audience. Many asked questions
to learn further details, and a lawyer brought out suggestions on how to stop
the evil practice.
parliament hall was packed
Rights in China
of the New South Wales Upper House, stated that he was not surprised when he saw
the report by David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas. He said that
he had been to China a number of times and had met some members of underground
churches. Mr. Moyes said that tens of thousands underground church members are
also being detained and persecuted. He believes that there is a need to establish
a worldwide organization to support and promote human rights. He also said that
the Australian government sacrificed human rights in order to develop trade with
China.
Harvesting Atrocities Amount to Genocide
Vice President of the European Parliament, said that he had been to China in 1996
and he met reporters, dissidents, diplomats and two Falun Gong practitioners during
his most recent trip to China earlier this year. He learned that human rights
and democracy in China have become worse than 10 years ago and the CCP has intensified
its persecution against religious groups and dissidents while corruption has become
even more rampant. He said that he met two Falun Gong practitioners and listened
to their account of their personal experience during the persecution. According
to Cao Dong, one of the two practitioners, Mr. Cao's friend disappeared during
detention and later Cao had a chance to see his body with holes in it [left
by organ removal operations]. Cao Dong was arrested after meeting with Mr.
McMillan-Scott, who has since been working very hard to rescue him.
McMillan-Scott believed that the atrocities revealed by Kilgour's and Matas'
report constitute genocide. He said: “In Hong Kong, I met a friend of my family
who is a journalist, and he said: 'Yes, a friend of mine, he needed a new
liver, and he rang the hospital in Shenzhen, and they said yes, come over next
week, it's not a problem.'”
an average of 7 years to get a liver.
he came to Australia and New Zealand to expose these atrocities. They hope that
democratic countries including UK, Canada, US, Australia and New Zealand can operate
cooperatively to stop this. He stated that any organization or individual would
conclude that the Chinese Communist regime has committed genocide after reading
the report.
Confirms Evidence Provided in the Report
David Kilgour reviewed the investigation report and their investigation approach.
Kilgour said that the Chinese Communist regime waited 3 or 4 weeks to respond
to the report and the only refute from the government was that two province names
in the report were miss-quoted. Kilgour believed that such empty refute indicates
that the evidence provided in the report is solid and the crime of harvesting
organs from Falun Gong practitioners on a large scale does exist. Since the regime
started to persecute Falun Gong, from 1999 to present, there are more than 40,000
cases of organ transplant operation without verified organ donor. Assuming that
every donor provided two organs, it still means that at least 20,000 people died
unnaturally.
attention from the public. For example, he has recently received a news release
by the US Kidney Foundation which advised its members not to go to China for kidney
transplants.
could not help shouting, “This is a crime!” She said that her daughter is a kidney
doctor, and modern medical technique can use artificial kidneys without ethical
problems.
expressed concern that criticizing China for human rights will jeopardize trade
relations, Kilgour said that the trade deficit with China and Australia is $5
billion, $13 billion for Canada and even more for the US. While Canada and the
US are more reliant on the Chinese economy, this fact doesn't prevent the
two countries from condemning China for its bad human rights record.
said that he didn't believe that China will cancel contracts of buying natural
gas if Australia condemns its human rights problems. Edward McMillan-Scott said
that trade is very important to every country, but no country shall sacrifice
human rights for trade. He said that he is optimistic, even though the current
human rights situation in Communist China is shocking and saddening. He said that
the dramatic change in Poland and other Eastern European Countries started in
churches and people's awakening to beliefs.
member asked Kilgour and McMillan-Scott why they didn't investigate the CCP's
persecution against Christians. Kilgour said that he is a Christian and that they
are very concerned about the CCP's persecution of religious groups and dissidents.
However, evidence of harvesting organs from Christians or other dissidents has
not been discovered. Kilgour stressed that persecution of any belief is a persecution
of everyone.
room should write to the Prime Minister about this issue and encourage family
members and friends to participate in this meaningful effort. She said that if
the PM receives tens of thousands of letters on this issue, he would sense the
urgency of this issue and realize that he should do something about it.
the seminar, two Falun Gong practitioners shared their experiences of the persecution.
Sydney practitioner Wang Juan spoke on behalf of her mother who had just fled
from China. Ms. Wang's mother was illegally
detained for 3 years for practicing Falun Gong and went through a lot of physical
and mental torture. In addition, Wang's sister was also detained for her
belief in Falun Gong. Australian citizen Jane Dai recounted how her husband was
tortured to death by the Communist regime. At that time, their daughter was only
9 months old. Mrs. Dai's hair turned gray overnight upon hearing the heart-breaking
news. Her sister-in-law was also sentenced to a labor camp shortly after her husband's
death.
seminar was extended for more than half of an hour. After the seminar, many stayed
to continue their discussion. A lot of people thanked the seminar sponsors for
organizing this successful event and left their contact information in order to
receive updated information on this topic. Meanwhile, they also said that they
would share this information with people around them and consider all possible
means to help end the persecution.
Posting
date: 22/Aug/2006
Original article date: 21/Aug/2006
Category: Australian
News
