MEXICO CITY—Politicians, NGOs, and human rights lawyers held a high-profile forum denouncing the Chinese regime’s use of forced labor in their export industry in the Chamber of Deputies on March 29. The forum was a full house, and met with opinion articles in the mainstream press. It pushed for a new piece of legislation banning import of products of Chinese forced labor camps.
The forum, entitled “The situation of human rights in China” attracted around 500 audience members, filling the Chamber.
The event was organized by the Mexican chapter of the international group, Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), represented by Gerardo de la Concha. It is estimated that a large proportion of the prisoners of forced labor camps in China are Falun Gong practitioners, who have been detained illegally since the persecution of the practice began in 1999.
On the panel were representatives from The Commission of Human Rights of the Federal District (CDHDF), political commentators, and victims of forced labor camps in China.
The social democrat Armando Garcia Mendez, one of the organizers of the event, hoped to soon have an initiative ready prohibiting the import of products from forced labor camps in China.
Charles Lee, a victim who gave his testimony, explained how he was detained for three years in a forced labor camp in China, despite being a United States citizen. People with infectious diseases would prepare the food and sweets for export, he said.
Further to victim testimonies, Deputy Mendez said he was surprised with the revelations that two Canadian experts in human rights made at the forum: Mr. David Kilgour, Canadian ex-Secretary of State, and the renowned human rights lawyer David Matas. The Canadians compared the current Chinese regime with Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany, referring to an investigative report of which they are co-authors, which concludes that practitioners of Falun Gong have been victims of forced organ harvesting in China.
Kilgour and Matas said that the regime continues to systematically violate human rights, putting prisoners in jails under inhuman conditions. Some are tortured day and night, and given medical and DNA examinations for the purpose of finally extracting their organs.
Gerardo de la Concha, a political commentator, took up from what the Canadians had said: “A regime that commits crimes of this magnitude is a criminal regime, and in our country we are going to struggle to break the circle of silence that favors it. Further, to avoid damage to Mexican citizens, we are going to promote the passing in the next legislature a law which prohibits importing products coming from forced labor camps in China.”
The forum, entitled “The situation of human rights in China” attracted around 500 audience members, filling the Chamber.
The event was organized by the Mexican chapter of the international group, Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG), represented by Gerardo de la Concha. It is estimated that a large proportion of the prisoners of forced labor camps in China are Falun Gong practitioners, who have been detained illegally since the persecution of the practice began in 1999.
On the panel were representatives from The Commission of Human Rights of the Federal District (CDHDF), political commentators, and victims of forced labor camps in China.
The social democrat Armando Garcia Mendez, one of the organizers of the event, hoped to soon have an initiative ready prohibiting the import of products from forced labor camps in China.
Charles Lee, a victim who gave his testimony, explained how he was detained for three years in a forced labor camp in China, despite being a United States citizen. People with infectious diseases would prepare the food and sweets for export, he said.
Further to victim testimonies, Deputy Mendez said he was surprised with the revelations that two Canadian experts in human rights made at the forum: Mr. David Kilgour, Canadian ex-Secretary of State, and the renowned human rights lawyer David Matas. The Canadians compared the current Chinese regime with Stalinist Russia or Nazi Germany, referring to an investigative report of which they are co-authors, which concludes that practitioners of Falun Gong have been victims of forced organ harvesting in China.
Kilgour and Matas said that the regime continues to systematically violate human rights, putting prisoners in jails under inhuman conditions. Some are tortured day and night, and given medical and DNA examinations for the purpose of finally extracting their organs.
Gerardo de la Concha, a political commentator, took up from what the Canadians had said: “A regime that commits crimes of this magnitude is a criminal regime, and in our country we are going to struggle to break the circle of silence that favors it. Further, to avoid damage to Mexican citizens, we are going to promote the passing in the next legislature a law which prohibits importing products coming from forced labor camps in China.”
He also asked for a minute of silence.
For his part, Mexico’s ex-ambassador to Cuba, Ricardo Pascoe, added that “Mexico must exhort China, as its economic associate, to comply with the international norms of respect for human rights, labor rights, and the environment, for their exports to be accepted.”
But it was Liu Wei, a female victim who described the torture she suffered over several years in Chinese prisons, who captured the audience. “25 police broke into my house, they took all my Falun Gong materials, arrested me and took me to a detention centre. They punched, insulted, and tortured me. I received only two meals a day, consisting of soup with sand in it. We were forced to work 18 hours continuously, and they also put me through brain-washing sessions, making me watch videos defaming Falun Gong, and later trying to force me to write that it was bad. Each minute felt like an hour. They did not let me sleep for one minute; I was watched day and night. The guards took turns, and if I closed my eyes, they beat me. Every night I cried.”
“I want to say to everyone gathered here, that today there are still thousands of Falun Gong practitioners locked in these detention centres, suffering torture far more severe than what I suffered. I still have dreams of this torture, every night,” added Liu, in tears.
