A recent report issued by the U.S. State Department on April 14, found no evidence of Falun Gong practitioners being killed and their organs harvested in detention camps in northern China. Dr. Zhang Xuerong, spokesperson of Committee to Investigate the Facts, a group committed to investigating the suspected organ harvesting operation, has said that the U.S. investigators arrived too late on the scene. Dr. Zhang says that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials moved their operation and got rid of the evidence before allowing the search. Dr. Zhang is calling on international media to not be fooled by these apparent cover-up tactics, and to pursue a more detailed investigation into the matter.
The following is an interview with Dr. Zhang:
ET Reporter: The report said that the U.S. officials didn't find any evidence of Falun Gong practitioners being killed for their organs harvested in northern China. What are your thoughts on this?
Zhang Xuerong: First of all, why did the CCP keep silent for three weeks after the matter was first exposed? They had no comment as more and more evidence surfaced. Then, suddenly, they invite people in to have a look. Doesn't that seem a little fishy? It seems obvious that the CCP used this period of time to transfer Falun Gong practitioners to other places and to destroy any incriminating evidence at Sujiatun.
We know from history, that regimes engaged in this kind of horrific behavior are perfectly capable of covering it up under the scrutiny of outside investigators. A good example of this occurred in Nazi Germany. In June of 1944, an International Red Cross team was invited to have a look at one of the Nazi concentration camps in Theresienstadt, Germany. When the investigators arrived they were presented with a beautiful scene—nice place, flowers everywhere, the detention barracks were well-kept and newly painted. Nowhere to be seen were the squalor, torture, famine, and killing that we all know took place at that camp on a daily basis. Should that Red Cross team have been fooled into thinking that there was no holocaust occurring? If they were fooled, would not history have proved them less than diligent in their investigative duties? It is the same sort of cover-up going on presently in China.
The CCP always plays these kinds of tricks. When SARS appeared, international health experts went to China to investigate. Reportedly, at that time, Chinese officials resorted to moving groups of SARS patients around the city in a comical game of cat-and-mouse. This is not the first time that the CCP has made a detention camp look nice. When reporters were invited to the Masanjia Labor Camp around May, 2001, what the media saw were prisoners in new uniforms and freshly painted walls. Should they have been fooled?
An investigation, by the U.S., or any other government has very little meaning if the Chinese communist regime has ample time to prepare for it. If they can set the scene to look however they wish, and if the investigators do not dig a little deeper below the surface, there is very little chance of the truth being uncovered.
The fact is, thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been illegally detained and subjected to intense torture over the past seven years. This has been documented by various independent organizations, including the United Nations. It cannot logically be disputed. Now there is evidence about where these practitioners are disappearing to. Given the severity of the situation and the horrific nature of the accusations, you would think that the international media and investigating teams would dig a little bit deeper in search of the truth. Those who accepted the Nazi's story that they were not slaughtering millions of people were shown to be either indifferent, foolish, or hopelessly naïve by history. Let's hope that the international community has learned its lesson.
Reporter: Why did you push to have the Committee to Investigate the Facts participate in the investigation? Why is this important?
Zhang: The Committee to Investigate the Facts of the Persecution Against Falun Gong in China was created by members of the Falun Dafa Association and the Minghui website. As Minghui has access to many first-hand materials about the truth of the situation in China, it is a valuable resource to any truth seeking investigation in China. The international community is still not that familiar with the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong in China. The people who make up the Committee to Investigate the Facts are experts in this area. It only makes sense to include them.
The Committee to Investigate the Facts has two requests. The first one is that the CCP open all facilities where Falun Gong practitioners are jailed to investigation ― including labor camps, prisons, hospitals and psychiatric wards.
The second request is to allow a team led by Falun Gong practitioners safely into China to investigate the persecution of its members.
Reporter: Have you made any preparation for such an investigation?
Zhang: Next week, starting from April 17, we will go to the Chinese Embassy to apply for our visas. Since the CCP claims to welcome international investigation, Falun Gong practitioners are taking them up on their invitation. If the CCP sincerely welcomes international investigation, they should allow our investigation team to enter China and see what we can find.
Reporter: Does your group have any evidence that there is organ harvesting being carried out on Falun Gong detainees?
Zhang: We have gathered a large amount of circumstantial evidence and testimony from people who have come into contact with the operation in one way or another. For instance, prior to May 1 there is a "sale" on organ transplant surgeries being held in hospitals throughout the country. They are encouraging people to get the organs while they are around, because there might not be as many in the coming months. Doesn't it sound suspicious that they have a huge stock of organs to get rid of in a short amount of time? Not to mention that the timing coincides with international exposure of their organ harvesting practices. Also, we have first hand accounts from surgeons who have performed organ transplant surgeries that at least some of the organs involved have come from Falun Gong practitioners. These are just a couple of examples.
Reporter: What should the people of the world be doing about this human rights disaster in China?
Zhang: The CCP harvests organs from living Falun Gong practitioners and then burns their bodies. Such horrible crimes are consistent with former Chinese president Jiang Zemin's policy of "destroying them physically." Jiang vowed to annihilate Falun Gong within three months—that was back when the persecution first began in July of 1999. He was unable to do it in that short amount of time, and his extermination policy has extended into its seventh year. During all this time, Falun Gong practitioners have been subjected to all means of torture and coercion. Organ harvesting is just the most recent development in a long list of atrocities.
We call on the people of the world to talk to their governments and help raise awareness of the persecution. We encourage them to support our efforts to conduct a complete investigation into China's system of concentration camps. We ask for their support in our continuing efforts to uncover the truth. Let's together take actions to put an end to the persecution.
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