Eyewitness Recounts Forced Organ Removal in China

A teacher in China was tortured, raped, and finally operated on to extract her organs while she was still alive.
Eyewitness Recounts Forced Organ Removal in China
'Organ Crimes.' Oil painting depicting the seizure of organs from a living Falun Gong practitioner in China. Xiqiang Dong is the artist. (Image courtesy of Xiqiang Dong.)
Stephen Gregory
12/14/2009
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img class="size-medium wp-image-1824711" title="'Organ Crimes.' Oil painting depicting the seizure of organs from a living Falun Gong practitioner in China. Xiqiang Dong is the artist. (Image courtesy of Xiqiang Dong.)" src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/19OrganHarvest.jpg" alt="'Organ Crimes.' Oil painting depicting the seizure of organs from a living Falun Gong practitioner in China. Xiqiang Dong is the artist. (Image courtesy of Xiqiang Dong.)" width="320"/></a>
'Organ Crimes.' Oil painting depicting the seizure of organs from a living Falun Gong practitioner in China. Xiqiang Dong is the artist. (Image courtesy of Xiqiang Dong.)

No Anesthetics

On April 9, 2002, two military surgeons came to the makeshift “black jail,” a small hotel rented as a “training center,” according to the witness. One of the military surgeons was from the General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and the other one was a graduate of the Second Military Medical University, he said. They took the woman to a hospital.

“At that time, we had been interrogating and severely torturing her for about a week,” he said. “She already had countless wounds on her body. Also, [we] used electrical batons to beat her. She had already become delirious.”

“Prior to this, she suffered even greater humiliation,” he said. “Many of our policemen were perverted. They were using pincers and other equipment that I don’t know from where they got them to molest her. ... She had some good looks, relatively beautiful, [so the policemen] were raping her. ... This was far too common.”

The policeman said he was on armed guard duty in the room while he watched the surgeons cut the woman’s chest open while she was still alive. No anesthetics were used, he said.

“They cut her chest with a knife,” he said. “She shouted ‘Ah’ loudly, saying ‘Falun Dafa is great.’”

“She said, ‘You killed me, one individual.’

“At that moment, that doctor, that military surgeon, hesitated. Then he looked at me, then at our [policemen’s] superior. Then our superior nodded, and he continued to do the veins. … [Her] heart was carved out first, next were the kidneys. When her cardiac veins were cut by the scissors, she started twitching. It was extremely horrible. I can imitate her voice for you, although I couldn’t imitate it well. It sounded like something was being ripped apart, and then she continued ‘Ah.’ After that, she always had her mouth wide open, with both her eyes open wide. Ah … I don’t want to continue.”

The organ harvesting took place in an operating room on the 15th floor of the General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region, the witness said. It began at 5 p.m. and lasted 3 hours.

Hoping Others Step Forward

The spokesperson for WOIPFG in New York, Mr. Wang Zhiyuan, said investigators called the witness three times this month, and they obtained the recording on Dec. 11. Wang said he believed the witness came forward for two reasons: “One, the practitioner’s great compassion and great forbearance shocked him,” he said. “Secondly, he eye-witnessed the whole process of organ harvesting and the cruelty shocked him. He felt tortured inside.”

According to Wang, the witness said in the interrogations of practitioners that he took part in the police were asking two things, to sign a letter repenting having practiced Falun Gong and to curse Falun Gong. But the practitioners would not do that.

According to Wang, the witness said that the practitioners would rather face 7 or 10 years of imprisonment, torture, or even death. The witness said the practitioners are very strong. He concluded one phone call by saying, “Falun Dafa is great!” according to Wang.

Wang said the witness told investigators that he feared he would be murdered immediately if his identity were discovered. The witness said he confessed so that other people would have the courage to step forward and tell the truth about organ harvesting.

WOIPFG intends to continue contact with the witness.

Investigation of Organ Harvesting

The Epoch Times’s first stories on organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners relied on detailed accounts brought out of China by a journalist and the wife of a surgeon who had performed these operations. Their reports were initially corroborated with calls made by WOIPFG to doctors in China who claimed to have organs from Falun Gong practitioners available for transplantation, among other pieces of evidence.

Canadian investigators David Kilgour and David Matas, a former Crown Prosecutor and a human rights lawyer, respectively, published a report, “Bloody Harvest,” in July 2006 on the allegations that organs were being harvested from living Falun Gong practitioners. They published a revised and expanded report in January 2007, and a book, Bloody Harvest: Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China, in October 2009.

In their report, Kilgour and Matas examined 33 different factors in determining that the allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners are true.

The report cites 41,500 unexplained organ transplants from 2000 to 2005—the 6-year period since the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999—that do not come from convicted, executed prisoners, or the brain-dead, or family donors. They draw the conclusion that the most likely source of these organs has been Falun Gong practitioners detained in China.

Evidence of organ harvesting has also been compiled by researcher Ethan Gutmann. Gutmann’s article “China’s Gruesome Organ Harvest” published in the Weekly Standard in October 2008, details systematic physical examinations of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience.

The examinations targeted the health of their organs and little else, and often included multiple blood and urine tests given to healthy prisoners. Gutmann’s investigation included evidence from Shenyang, the city the witness refers to as a center of organ harvesting activity.

In August 2006, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, the Special Rapporteur on the Freedom of Religion, Asma Jahangir, and the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, Sigma Huda, communicated with the Chinese regime, raising questions about organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. In March the following year, Nowak transmitted in his report the allegation that “Organ harvesting has been inflicted on a large number of unwilling Falun Gong practitioners at a wide variety of locations for the purpose of making available organs for transplant operations.”

In a statement described by observers as unusually direct for a U.N. body, the United Nations Committee on Torture in November 2008 called on the Chinese state to commission an independent investigation of the reports, and “ensure that those responsible for such abuses are prosecuted and punished.”

Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual practice that was estimated to have attracted 100 million adherents in China by 1999, with practitioners typically claiming improvements in their health, character, and sense of well being. The Chinese Communist Party regime began persecuting Falun Gong in July 1999. The Falun Dafa Information Center estimates that hundreds of thousands of practitioners have been held in labor camps and over 3,000 practitioners are said to be confirmed as having died from torture.

For a partial transcript of the testimony, continue to the next page ...

Witness: A scalpel, a surgical knife at the chest. When it cut the chest, blood gushed out. It was gushing out, not…

Question: Is the person you saw male or female?

Witness: Female.

Question: Young?

Witness: Maybe in her 30s.

Question: Was she still shouting “Falun Dafa is great”?

Witness: Yes, still, she was still shouting.

Question: Please describe what she was saying at that time.

Witness: At that time, we had been interrogating and severely torturing her for about a week. She already had countless wounds on her body. Also, (we) used electrical batons to beat her. She had already become delirious. She was already beaten to .... Since she refused to eat anything, we forcefully poured milk into her stomach. She didn’t want to drink, so we forced it down. You know, when her nose was pinched, because of her basic human instincts, she had to drink the milk. Therefore, her life was maintained that way, but she lost almost 15 jin (equivalent to 7.5 kilograms) within seven days. However, we didn’t know at this time, it was possibly a certain office in the Public Security Bureau of Liaoning Province (anyway, it was a very secretive office) that sent two people over. One of them was a military surgeon from the General Hospital of Shenyang Military Region of People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and the other one was a graduate of the Second Military Medical University. Specifically, one of them was relatively old, and the other one was young. They were doing something to her in an operating room of the mental hospital she was sent to. No anesthetics were used. They cut her chest with a knife without shaking their hands. If it were me, I would be shaking. Although I am an armed police, I used guns, I went through drills with authentic ammunitions, and I had seen many corpses, when I saw these military surgeons, I was really amazed. Their hands didn’t shake at all; they put on their surgical mask and cut directly. At that time, we (armed policemen) were standing on guard with a gun each in our hands. By then, she had already been opened. Then “Ah!” she shouted loudly once. Then she shouted, saying “Falun Dafa is great.”

Question: She shouted “Falun Dafa is great” when her chest was cut?

Witness: She shouted “Ah” loudly, saying “Falun Dafa is great”. She said “you killed me, one individual.” (I think) it roughly meant “you killed one individual like me. Can you kill several hundred millions of us, people that are being persecuted by you for our true belief?” At that moment, that doctor, that military surgeon hesitated. Then he looked at me, then at our (policemen’s) superior. Then our superior nodded, and he continued to do the veins… (Her) heart was curved out first, next were the kidneys. When her cardiac veins were cut by the scissors, she started twitching. It was extremely horrible. I can imitate her voice for you, although I couldn’t imitate it well. It sounded like something was being ripped apart, and then she continued “ah”. Since then she always had her mouth wide open, with both her eyes open wide. Ah… I don’t want to continue.

(Certain parts omitted.)

Witness: At that time, this person was a teacher, an instructor teaching in a high school. Her son should be almost 12 years old by now. Her husband was quite incapable (i.e. didn’t have much power). Maybe he was a factory worker. Prior to this, she suffered even greater humiliation. Many of our policemen were perverted. They were using pincers and other equipments that I don’t know from where they got them, to molest her. I have witnessed all these with my own eyes, but I regret that I didn’t take any photos. She had some good looks, relatively beautiful, (so the policemen) were raping her…this was far too common.

Question: This is what you witnessed in the police station where you stayed…?

Witness: I didn’t stay in a police station. I was in a training center, which was the backyard of a hotel. (The policemen) rented ten rooms in a small building. They would do this in a small mansion.

Question: A black jail?

Witness: More or less so.

Question: As long as they are Falun Gong practitioners, they were sent there?

Witness: Yes.

Question: Even before they were tried, they were sent there?

Witness: Anyway, we (i.e. policemen) always change places on a short notice.

(Certain parts are omitted.)

Question: You haven’t told me the specific time.

Witness: It was April 9th, 2002.

Question: April 9th?

Witness: Yes, the operation started from 5 p.m. on April 9th and lasted three hours. Before that, it continued for a month.

Question: What do you mean by “it continued for a month”?

Witness: Our interrogating and torturing of her lasted for a month.

(Certain parts are omitted.)

Question: Did you torture them once in the interrogation process to extract information or many times?

Witness: Many times. At that time, Wang Lijun, nowadays the chief of the Chongqing Public Security Bureau, ordered us “must eradicate all”.

When Chongqing’s former top cop, Wang Lijun, fled for his life to the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on Feb. 6, he set in motion a political storm that has not subsided. The battle behind the scenes turns on what stance officials take toward the persecution of Falun Gong. The faction with bloody hands—the officials former CCP head Jiang Zemin promoted in order to carry out the persecution—is seeking to avoid accountability for their crimes and to continue the campaign. Other officials are refusing any longer to participate in the persecution. Events present a clear choice to the officials and citizens of China, as well as people around the world: either support or oppose the persecution of Falun Gong. History will record the choice each person makes.

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