China Organ Harvesting Investigators Get Swiss Human Rights
- 14 years ago
The Swiss International Society for Human Rights awarded Canada’s former Secretary of State David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas their annual Human Rights prize in Bern on Saturday (January 16).
[David Matas, Human Rights Lawyer]:
“It is the voice of individuals around the world which is most likely to lead to respect for human rights.”
The award is for their investigation into allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China. Falun Gong is a traditional meditation practice that the Chinese regime has been persecuting for more than 10 years-sending hundreds of thousands to forced labor camps.
Kilgour and Matas’ investigative report is called “Bloody Harvest.” It shows 52 points of evidence suggesting the Chinese regime has been killing Falun Gong practitioners for their organs to be sold to transplant patients.
They say in 2006, Chinese hospital websites advertised perfectly matched organs and extremely short waiting times for organ transplants—as fast as one to two weeks.
[Dr. Franz Immer, Director of Swiss Transplant]:
“In Europe we wait, on average, two and a half to three years for a kidney, nine to 12 months for a heart or a liver.”
In 2007, Dr. Immer was invited to attend a heart transplantation surgery in Beijing during a medical congress there. But he declined the invitation after he realized what the short waiting time meant about the source of the organs.
[Dr. Franz Immer, Director of Swiss Transplant]:
“We were quite interested in seeing a Chinese hospital, but then I suddenly realized that in Switzerland, the transplantations are never known in advance. It happens in the night or during the weekends, sometimes there are two to three of them in a row and sometimes there are none for a longer period of time. So this was the first time I saw myself confronted with the fact that obviously executions are being carried out, [people] are being killed on a certain date in order to carry out the transplant surgeries.”
[David Matas, Human Rights Lawyer]:
“It is the voice of individuals around the world which is most likely to lead to respect for human rights.”
The award is for their investigation into allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China. Falun Gong is a traditional meditation practice that the Chinese regime has been persecuting for more than 10 years-sending hundreds of thousands to forced labor camps.
Kilgour and Matas’ investigative report is called “Bloody Harvest.” It shows 52 points of evidence suggesting the Chinese regime has been killing Falun Gong practitioners for their organs to be sold to transplant patients.
They say in 2006, Chinese hospital websites advertised perfectly matched organs and extremely short waiting times for organ transplants—as fast as one to two weeks.
[Dr. Franz Immer, Director of Swiss Transplant]:
“In Europe we wait, on average, two and a half to three years for a kidney, nine to 12 months for a heart or a liver.”
In 2007, Dr. Immer was invited to attend a heart transplantation surgery in Beijing during a medical congress there. But he declined the invitation after he realized what the short waiting time meant about the source of the organs.
[Dr. Franz Immer, Director of Swiss Transplant]:
“We were quite interested in seeing a Chinese hospital, but then I suddenly realized that in Switzerland, the transplantations are never known in advance. It happens in the night or during the weekends, sometimes there are two to three of them in a row and sometimes there are none for a longer period of time. So this was the first time I saw myself confronted with the fact that obviously executions are being carried out, [people] are being killed on a certain date in order to carry out the transplant surgeries.”