Falun Gong accuses Beijing of torture,
theft, sale of body parts
An outlawed religious sect in
China is charging the government with torturing prisoners, executing them and
trafficking in their body parts.
The charge, by the banned
Falun Gong group, is backed up by Chinese doctors and human rights experts who
keep tabs on activities of the Beijing government.
The Chinese
government has arrested hundreds of members of Falun Gong and some, according
to the group and human rights activists, have been sent directly to labor camps
without trials.
The U.S. Congress – both House and Senate
– unanimously passed resolutions in 1999 criticizing the Chinese government
for its crackdown of the Falun Gong. Both resolutions urged the Chinese government
to honor the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that it has signed, to stop
arresting, detaining and persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, to release all
detained dissidents, and to respect the basic human rights such as freedom of
belief and freedom of speech."
Falung Gong members are
now citing specific evidence of the systematic torture and execution of members
who have been arrested. Here are some of the specific cases they cite:
*
Hao Runjuan of Guangzhou City was very healthy before the mother of a 2-year-old
was arrested. After being continuously tortured for 22 days by police in the Baiyun
Detention Center, she died. After she was tortured to death, the police authorities
had the body autopsied without her family members knowing, even though the law
requires the signature of a family member to approve an autopsy. When the family
was told to identify the body, it had become completely unrecognizable, but there
were still fresh, red bloodstains on it. Because the body was so disfigured, none
of her family members believed it was Hao Runjuan, even after seeing the body
twice. Then, the family had to take the 2-year-old son for a DNA blood test to
confirm the body was truly his mother’s.*
Ren Pengwu, 33, was distributing Falun Gong literature Feb. 16, 2001.
He was
arrested by the Hulan County police and then detained in the Hulan County Second
Detention Center. Before dawn Feb. 21, only five days after his detention, he
was tortured to death. Without obtaining the family’s permission, and under the
guise of a "legal investigation," they completely removed all of Ren
Pengwu’s organs, from his pharynx and larynx to his penis, then hastily cremated
his body.* Zuo Zhigang was 33 and worked at a computer store in Shijiazhuang,
Hebei Province. On May 30, 2001, police from the Public Security Bureau of Shijiazhuang
City abducted him from his work place and took him to the Qiaoxi District Police
Station in Shijiazhuang. Later, the police interrogated Zuo Zhigang, using various
torture methods, and he was beaten to death the same day. His corpse was full
of scars. One of his ears was dark purple and there were two big square-shaped
holes on the back of his torso. There was a mark on his neck showing that a string
had been pulled tightly around it.* Yang Ruiyu
of Fuzhou City was an employee at the Real Estate Bureau of Taijiang District.
On July 19, 2001, Yang was taken away from her work. Only three days later, Yang
died as a result of the abuse. After Yang’s death, the Fuzhou police threatened
Yang’s family not to leak any information. In addition, Yang’s colleagues were
not allowed to see her body or say goodbye, and no funeral was permitted. When
the body was sent to be cremated, it was guarded by police cars, and cremated
immediately upon arrival. Yang’s husband and daughter were not allowed to view
the body. It was reported that there was a hole in Yang’s side as large as an
adult’s fist.* Sun Ruijian was 29 and left home Nov. 7, 2000, to appeal
for Falun Gong in Beijing. He was arrested by Beijing police. On Dec. 1, his family
was told that he had died. They claimed that two Fujian police were sent to bring
him back from Beijing and that he died after jumping out of the train at 4 p.m.
on Nov. 29, someplace between the cities of Shunchang and Xiayang.
"According
to insiders, some evil police officers in Mainland China are colluding with greedy
doctors and looking to sell the organs of Falun Gong practitioners for large sums
of money," claims a Faun Gong statement.
"Needless
to say, their plans are cruel and heartless to the extreme. One source indicates
that a certain hospital in the city of Shijiazhuang that specializes in Chinese
medicine has received six such requests. Everyone, especially the families of
the practitioners who are in jail, are asked to pay close attention to this development.
The only way to prevent your loved ones from being persecuted in such a way is
to expose the evil deeds of the authorities."
The group
also charges that some prison guards offered drug addicts narcotics if they beat
up Falun Gong members.
The stories, as horrifying as they
seem, are backed up by a Chinese doctor who defected to the United States.
On
June 27, 2001, Wang Guoqi, a doctor specializing in the burn victims unit at the
Paramilitary Tianjin General Hospital in Tianjin, testified before the Subcommittee
on International Operations and Human Rights of the United States House of Representatives.
He said in his testimony that he was sent by the hospital to remove skin and corneas
from the corpses of over 100 executed prisoners at a crematorium.
Dr.
Thomas Diflo also testified. Diflo, who is working in the NYU Medical Center,
wrote in his article published in a May issue of the New York Village Voice that
six of his patients who had kidney transplants in China came to him afterwards
for medical care. These patients all told him that their new kidneys came from
executed prisoners.
"We call on organizations, governments,
people of conscience around the world, and the United Nations to please pay attention
to this severe problem," said a Falun Gong statement.
The
number of death sentences passed, as the number of executions carried out, are
classed as state secrets in China. But, according to international monitors, China
is clearly the leader in the world.
In 2003, according to
a judicial source, 5,000 people were executed in China. Chen Zhonglin, a member
of the People´s National Congress in Beijing, said that China carries out
10,000 executions every year. His declaration was published on the China Youth
Daily in March 2004. This was the first time that a similar declaration was published
by a state-controlled newspaper.
China’s Attorney General
Han Zubin has called for measures against "separatists, terrorists and adherents
to .." to be stepped up for the sake of "national security." In
the five years up to 2003, some 3,500 people had been charged with "crimes
against the state," including murder, bomb attacks and arson, but also non-violent
political dissent. Han confirmed that the total included suspected practitioners
of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement […] outlawed in 1999.
It’s
illegal to buy or sell organs in China. But a 1984 law allows organs to be transplanted
from an executed prisoner if family members don’t claim the body right away. Amnesty
International says Chinese media reported 1,060 judicial executions in 2002. But
it says the actual figure may be as high as 15,000. Most harvested prisoner organs
are sold to medical "visitors" from Hong Kong, Taiwan or Singapore.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39235
Posting
Date: 6/Jul/2004
Article Date: 3/Jul/2004
Category: Media Report
