SYDNEY—Calls have again been raised about the need for an independent investigation into illegal organ harvesting in China.
Ian Cohen, New South Wales Greens MP, put a motion to the NSW State Parliament last week calling on the Australian Government to push for an independent investigation into allegations of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China.
The motion calls on the house to note their concern about the allegations raised in the Canadian report, Bloody Harvest: Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China, that was first published in 2006.
In the report, former Canadian Secretary of State and lawyer David Kilgour, along with Canadian humans rights lawyer David Matas, cite over 50 sources of evidence, including hospitals in China who gave voice-recorded admissions that they were sourcing organs for transplant from Falun Gong practitioners in China. The two lawyers concluded that practitioners of the ancient meditation and exercise practice were indeed being used to service a lucrative and burgeoning transplant industry.
Falun Gong practitioners are severely persecuted in China. According to the US State Department, over half the estimated 250,000 prisoners in China’s extensive labour camp system are practitioners of Falun Gong; of those tortured, Manfred Nowak, the UN Rapporteur on Torture, estimated in his 2006 UN report that around two thirds were Falun Gong practitioners.
Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called for an independent investigation into the Canadian report’s conclusions as opposition Foreign Minister in 2007, saying on ABC’s Lateline:, “The allegations are so far-reaching and so profound, we need to ensure that there is an appropriate investigation.”
There has to date been no sign of any investigation and very little comment on the issue.
Sev Ozdowski, OAM, Australian Human Rights Commissioner from 2000 to 2005, said NSW Greens MP Ian Cohen should be congratulated for once again bringing the issue to the public’s attention, saying “organ harvesting” was “abhorrent” and “one of the worst crimes of genocide against a particular group of Chinese population”.
“Stealing people’s organs for profit should be stopped,” he told The Epoch Times.
Mr Ozdowski said the Greens’s motion was a positive step in the right direction.
“It is an important milestone towards other Australian parliaments taking a similar stance and making sure that this practice is outlawed throughout the world,” he said.
Mr Ozdowski recommended that the United Nations appoint a special rapporteur to go into China to investigate.
