David Matas - Bloody Harvest; The Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs, Final Ed.

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Reproduced by Permission, the Royal Society of Medicine Press, London - Treasure, The Falun Gong, organ transplantation, the holocaust and ourselves. Mar 2007, 100; 119-121

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Matas, David

Bloody harvest: the killing of Falun Gong for their organs / David Matas and David Kilgour.

ISBN 978-0-9808879-7-6

1. Transplantation of organs, tissues, etc. -Corrupt practices-China.

2. Sale of organs, tissues, etc. -Corrupt practices-China. 3. Falun Gong (Organization). 4. Prisoners-Crimes against-China. 5. Political persecution-China. 6. Human rights-China. I. Kilgour, David, 1941- II. Title.

HV6627.M38 2009 364. 1'322 C2009-906041-8

Editor: George Down

Cover Design and Typography: Julie McNeill, McNeill Design Arts

Published in 2009 by Seraphim Editions 54 Bay Street Woodstock, ON Canada N4S 3K9

A woman using the pseudonym Annie told the newspaper The Epoch Times in a story published in its March 17, 2006 issue:

One of my family members was involved in the operation to harvest Falun Gong practitioners organs. This brought great pain to our family.

Annies interview led to a controversy about whether or not she was telling the truth. The Government of China denied everything. Others, who had begun some initial investigations based on what Annie said, asserted that Falun Gong practitioners were victims of live organ-harvesting throughout China.

Falun Gong is a set of exercises with a spiritual foundation which was banned in China in 1999. Those who did the exercises after 1999 were arrested and asked to denounce the practice. Those who did so were released. Those who did not were tortured. Those who still refused to recant after torture disappeared.

What happened to the disappeared? It was claimed by Annie and others that they were organ-harvested, that organ-pillaging was being inflicted on unwilling Falun Gong practitioners at a wide variety of locations, pursuant to a systematic policy, in large numbers.

Organ-harvesting is a step in organ transplants. The purpose is to provide organs for transplants. Transplants do not necessarily have to take place in the same place as the location of the organ-harvesting. The two locations are often different; organs harvested in one place are shipped to another place for transplanting.

The claim was further that the organs are harvested from the practitioners while they are still alive. The practitioners are killed in the course of the organ-harvesting operations or immediately thereafter. These operations are a form of murder.

Finally, it was claimed that the practitioners killed in this way are then cremated. There would be no corpse left to examine, to identify as the source of an organ transplant.

The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong in China (CIPFG) in May 2006 asked us to investigate these claims. In light of the seriousness of the claims, as well as our own commitment to respect for human rights, we accepted the request. Though the organization offered to pay our expenses, we never asked it to do so.

We first set out the results of our investigation in a report released in July 2006. A second version of the report was released in January 2007. Our conclusion was indeed that innocent Falun Gong practitioners were being killed for their organs.

This book presents our investigation in updated form. It secondly presents how we and others dealt with the evidence we accumulated. Because we are both human rights activists, we could not sit idly by once we concluded that innocents were being killed for their organs.

The book has two parts. The first part sets out the evidence. Our investigation did not end with the first version of our report, nor the second. We continued to receive new evidence after each version of the report came out, not only additional evidence of the sort we had already received, but whole new categories of evidence. The second part sets out the reactions we got to our report and the advocacy we undertook to end the abuse we identified.

Our advocacy and the investigation were mutually reinforcing. Because of our advocacy we continued to receive new evidence. And because the new evidence all pointed in the same direction, supporting our conclusions, the new evidence reinforced our advocacy.

Laws and practices have changed since the two versions of our report came out, possibly partly because of the report. This book attempts to look at the situation as it has evolved, addressing the question not only whether the abuse has occurred, but also whether it is still occurring.

The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China by letter asked us to investigate the allegations of organ-harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners. This is the letter:

May 24, 2006

To: Mr. David Matas and Mr. David Kilgour

The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong in China (CIPFG), a nongovernmental organization registered in Washington, D. C., U. S. A. with a branch in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, respectfully asks for your assistance in investigating allegations that state institutions and employees of the government of Peoples Republic of China have been harvesting organs from live Falun Gong practitioners, killing the practitioners in the process. The Coalition has received evidence to substantiate these allegations, but also is aware that some people are unsure whether or not these allegations are true and that others deny them.

The Coalition understands that you will conduct your investigation independently from the Coalition or any other organization/government. You are free to report your findings or come to any conclusion based on the evidence collected.