CIPFG, May 9, 2006
Former MP David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David
Matas are to investigate allegations that China has been executing Falun Gong
prisoners in order to harvest and sell their vital organs.
The
announcement of an investigation comes just days after Chinese officials
publicly denied the practice took place.
Most of the allegations come
from the spiritual movement Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa), which has a
substantial following in Canada, but has been banned in China since
1999.
The Falun Dafa Association of Canada says there is evidence that
the organs of thousands of executed prisoners in China are being removed every
year for transplants without consent and last week asked Kilgour and Matas to
investigate.
There has been no independent confirmation of the reports.
Former Liberal MP Kilgour told a news conference in Ottawa Monday that
an investigation would be done "completely independently" and "as quickly as
reasonably feasible."
"Given the nature of some of the allegations made
to date, we think it is in the public interest to weigh the probative value of
what some of the individuals have said, seen, and heard within China on these
issues," said Kilgour.
Renowned lawyer David Matas told the news
conference he hoped the report would be completed within six weeks.
He
said if the allegations were true, "there would have been thousands of people
killed for their religious convictions."
Matas said the plan was to
"interview personally whatever witnesses are available in North America," and to
ask the Chinese government to grant he and Kilgour visas "to make our own
investigations" in the country.
"We hope to assess objectively to see
whether these allegations they are true," he said. "If they are true, it will
require the mobilization of the international community to stop
this."
Tory MP Rahim Jaffer said the allegations were "a disturbing
affront to human life."
"Given China's record on human rights abuses we
have a duty to take these allegations seriously," he said. "This investigation
is the first step in putting all the facts on the table."
Widespread
allegations into organ harvesting have persisted for several years -- including
from international human rights groups.
Reports suggest that the speed
of matching donors and patients -- which are matched sometimes as quickly as a
week -- implied prisoners were being selected before execution.
The
emergence of transplant tourism has made the sale of health organs even more
lucrative, while secrecy surrounding executions in China makes it difficult to
gather facts.
Patients increasingly come from Western countries,
including the U.S and U.K., as well as Japan and South Korea.
But
Chinese health officials insisted publicly last month that organs from executed
prisoners were only used with prior permission and only then very rarely.
They also announced that the selling of organs would be banned from
July.