New Delhi
13 April 2008
A new report from the "World Organisation to Investigate the
Persecution of Falun Gong" says the Chinese Communist regime has intensified its
persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
The report, based on official documents from Chinese authorities and reports from
persecuted victims, says the Beijing Olympics has been used as a pretext to intensify
the persecution of Falun Gong.
It says the "Safe Olympics Action" started in January 2008 singles out Falun Gong as the
major target and 1,878 Falun Gong practitioners were illegally arrested from the end of
2007 to March 11, 2008.
It cites a document, entitled "Operations Program for Gulou Neighbourhood Olympic
Security and Social Control", in which the first item of the "Critical List of People" singled
out Falun Gong as a major category for suppression.
A former Canadian parliamentarian, Mr David Kilgour, who authored a similar report on
the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in 2007, says harvesting of organs of Falun
Gong practitioners continues to remain a serious problem.
"The problem continues to be very, very serious," Mr Kilgour told this newspaper from
Canada. "Our report concluded that thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been
killed without any form of trial for their organs."
The report authored by Kilgour and a colleague David Matas is entitled "Bloody Harvest:
Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China". Their study has been
corroborated by independent researchers.
Kilgour and Matas's report suggests Falun Gong practitioners and prisoners sentenced
to death are the sole victims of organ harvesting (or the killing of innocents for their
organs for transplant surgery).
Kilgour is now a volunteer working on human rights issues. He visited India in 2007.
"We have both been to India and met with a number of respected persons, including two
former prime ministers about the issue," Kilgour added.
Meanwhile, another front has been opened against the Chinese repression in Tibet with
the Indian practitioners of Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) deciding to join the
protests against the human rights violations in China.
The Indian Falun Gong practitioners have drawn up a series of peaceful events,
including peaceful meditation, banner display and candle light. April 17, when Olympic
torch arrives in India, will be observed as Human Dignity Day.
The Falun Gong began in 1992 as a blend of ancient Chinese spiritual and exercise
traditions. It was banned in 1999 because of Communist ideological envy over its
increasing popularity.
Before their repression, the Falun Gong were more numerous than any other group, more
numerous than the Communist Party itself. A number of human rights tribunals have all
determined Falun Gong to be a form of religion.
The 2007 United States Department of State Report on International Religious Freedom
cites foreign observers as suggesting at least half of the 2.5 lakh officially recorded
inmates in Chinese labour camps are Falun Gong adherents.
According to the New York-based Falun Dafa Information Centre, the "escalating
maltreatment" is a direct result of efforts to "stamp out" Falun Gong prior to the summer
Olympics in Beijing.
"The speed with which Falun Gong adherents are being seized by police, abused, and
turning up dead is alarming and reprehensible," its spokesperson Gail Rachlin has said.
The Falun Dafa Information Centre said in a statement it is particularly concerned over
recent reports of adherents "dying" in custody shortly after their arrest. Within the first
three months of 2008, it has documented six cases of practitioner deaths occurring
within merely 16 days of arrest and in some cases, within hours.
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