Taiwan condemns in the strongest possible terms China’s harvesting of human organs
from executed Falun Gong practitioners, Mainland Affairs Council
(MAC) Chairman
Joseph Wu said yesterday.
Taiwan is also gravely concerned about prevalent
infringements upon human rights across China and the development of related situations,
Wu said when he met with three human rights activists from Canada and the United
States.
Wu met with David Kilgour, a former Canadian secretary of state
for Asia-Pacific and Latin America, and David Matas, an international human rights
lawyer, who co authored the Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun
Gong Practitioners in China, and Wang Wenyi, a China born pathologist who became
famous last April when she created a scene by shouting at visiting Chinese President
Hu Jintao and his American host George W. Bush during a White House welcoming
ceremony. Wu said Taiwan is not only concerned about organ harvesting in China
but is also worried about other human rights issues there, such as the shooting
of Tibetans by Chinese paramilitary police, arrests of human rights lawyers and
a purge of Muslims and Christians.
For his part, Kilgour, who has addressed
the United Nations and the U.S.Congress about religious freedom and China’s organ
harvesting, said he and Matas had tried to enter China in May to verify the factuality
of the claims contained in their report, but were denied entrance by the Beijing
authorities.
Even more ridiculous was that Chinese human rights lawyer
Gao Zhicheng, who invited Matas and Kilgour to visit China to compile their report,
was arrested and indicted by the Chinese authorities on charges of "sedition
to overthrow the government" recently, Kilgour said, adding that Gao was
only calling for the Chinese authorities to uphold freedom, human rights and rule
of law in China. Kilgour said Beijing has totally denied the accusations of organ
harvesting from executed Falun Gong practitioners because China is preparing to
host the 2008 Olympic Games. Ironically, he said, if people search the Google
search engine for China’s denial by typing in the keywords "China denied,
" they will get more than 8.2 million entries.
For his part, Matas
said that while harvesting organs is reportedly guided by the Chinese government,
demands for the organs come from around the world, including Taiwan.
To
cease this practice, Matas said, it must be done from the justice side and from
the demand side as well. Matas said he is glad that Taiwan has been active in
this regard.
Matas said he hopes that Taiwan will ban organ exchanges with
China and ban organ transplants using organs from China. He expressed hope that
the Taiwan authorities will warn Taiwan people from traveling to China for organ
transplants while encouraging Taiwan people to donate their organs to help cut
demand for Chinese organs.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/detail.asp?ID=92742&GRP=B
Posting date: 14/Oct/2006
Original article date: 14/Oct/2006
Category:
Media Report
