Canadian investigators David Matas and David Kilgour have released the second report of their investigation into the Chinese government practice of organ harvesting from imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners. (via the blog of Wesley J. Smith.)
Here is the link to the full Matas-Kilgour Report - (pdf format)
Original Matas-Kilgour Report - July, 2006 (pdf)
I would urge you to read the full report and form your own conclusions, but here are the chilling conclusions drawn by the report's authors:
Based on our further research, we are reinforced in our original conclusion that the allegations are true. We believe that there has been and continues today to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners.We have concluded that the government of China and its agencies in numerous parts of the country, in particular hospitals but also detention centres and 'people's courts', since 1999 have put to death a large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience. Their vital organs, including kidneys, livers, corneas and hearts, were seized involuntarily for sale at high prices, sometimes to foreigners, who normally face long waits for voluntary donations of such organs in their home countries.
How many of the victims were first convicted of any offence, serious or otherwise, in legitimate courts, we are unable to estimate because such information appears to be unavailable both to Chinese nationals and foreigners. It appears to us that many human beings belonging to a peaceful voluntary organization made illegal eight years ago by President Jiang because he thought it might threaten the dominance of the Communist Party of China have been in effect executed by medical practitioners for their organs.
Our conclusion comes not from any one single item of evidence, but rather the piecing together of all the evidence we have considered. Each portion of the evidence we have considered is, in itself, verifiable and, in most cases, incontestable. Put together, they paint a damning whole picture. It is their combination that has convinced us.
From the news.com.au report:
Mr Matas and Mr Kilgour's second report, released today, includes interviews with organ recipients in 30 countries and Canadian hospital staff who cared for more than 100 patients who had undergone suspicious transplant surgeries in China."The involvement of the People's Liberation Army in these transplants is widespread,'' Mr Kilgour said at a press conference.
Like many civilian hospitals in rural China, military hospitals turned to selling organs to make up for government funding cuts in the 1980s, the report said.
But military personnel could operate with much more secrecy, it said.
"Recipients often tell us that even when they receive transplants at civilian hospitals, those conducting the operation are military personnel,'' the report said.
A news wire report from canadaeast.com today reported:
OTTAWA (CP) - A former member of Parliament and a high-profile immigration lawyer are calling on the Foreign Affairs Department to issue an advisory warning Canadians off of travelling to China for organ transplants.Former Liberal MP David Kilgour and David Matas, an immigration lawyer and senior legal counsel to B'nai Brith Canada, say they have overwhelming evidence that Chinese officials are killing Falun Gong practitioners and harvesting their organs for transplant.
The following is excerpted from a Spero News commentary on the new report:
Canadian investigators released a report January 31 that makes shocking allegations about China’s totalitarian government. Long-rumored and feared, it appears that China may have indeed added to its catalogue of crimes against humanity that of actually “harvesting†– that is to say, removing – organs from unwilling human beings. According to the report, members of the Falun Gong cult of China – a native spiritual movement in opposition to the communist government – are especially targeted.David Matas, a human rights lawyer from Ontario Canada, and David Kilgour, a former Canadian Secretary of State for the Asia Pacific region, conducted the investigation at the request of the Washington DC-based Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong.
The Chinese Deputy Minister of Public Health, Huang Jiefu, admitted at a conference held in the Philippines in 2005 that organs are indeed taken from executed prisoners. However, it was this week that the Health Ministry spokesman Mao Qunan admitted, despite previous and repeated denials, that organs are being “harvested†from prisoners. That this unethical practice is extended specifically to Falun Gong members is an issue that this latter-day Mao has managed to skirt.
It must be pointed out that while Matas and Kilgour are respected and independent investigators, the organization at whose request they are taking on the investigation, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong in China, is hardly an impartial party, as Wesley J. Smith notes in his August 2006 article at NRO.
What we do know is that China has now admitted that they do indeed harvest organs for sale and transplant from prisoners. We also know that the regime has mercilessly persecuted Falun Gong practitioners for at least the last eight years, and has imprisoned them, often without charges or notification of their families, by the tens of thousands during that time. All of which makes their denials that Falun Gong members are among the victims of organ harvesting rather difficult to take seriously.
Much more in the previous posts and comment threads below:
Previous Wizblog posts on Chinese Organ Harvesting
Murder For Organs in China 3/31/06
Sujiatun Follow-Up 4/20/06
Report on Chinese Organ Harvesting 7/9/06
Revisiting Sujiatun 9/8/06
Suspending Disbelief 9/10/06
Other Related Links:
First Matas - Kilgour Report 7/9/06
UPDATE 2/2:
One more excerpt from the Matas-Kilgour Report, this one explaining why the allegations are so plausible:
China violates human rights in a variety of ways. These violations are chronic and serious. Besides Falun Gong, other prime targets of human rights violations are Tibetans, Christians, Uighurs, democracy activists and human rights defenders. Rule of Law mechanisms in place to prevent human rights violations, such as an independent judiciary, access to counsel on detention, habeas corpus, the right to public trial, are absent in China. China, according to its constitution, is ruled by the Communist Party. It is not ruled by law.Posted by dan at February 1, 2007 8:37 PMCommunist China has had a history of massive, jaw dropping cruelty towards its own citizens. The Communist regime has killed more innocents than Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia combined. Girl children are killed, abandoned and neglected in massive numbers. Torture is widespread. The death penalty is both extensive and arbitrary. China executes more people than all other countries combined. Religious belief is suppressed.
This pattern of human rights violations, like many other factors, does not in itself prove the allegations. But it removes an element of disproof. It is impossible to say of these allegations that it is out of step with an overall pattern of respect for human rights in China. While the allegations, in themselves, are surprising, they are less surprising with a country that has the human rights record China does than they would be for many other countries.