Hon David Kilgour and David Matas will be in Wellington Tuesday 11 September to highlight new evidence from their painstaking research into the practice of state-sanctioned organ harvesting in China.
The former Canadian MP and the human rights lawyer have spent a year and a half researching and travelling in a global mission to raise awareness of the practice they conclude is "a form of evil yet to be seen on this planet."
Kilgour and Matas released Bloody Harvest: Revised Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China in January this year.
The report almost doubles the evidence found in the first report, published July, 2006.
"The practice of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners is even more widespread than we had originally reported," Kilgour and Matas say in their report.
New evidence includes the heavy military involvement in organ transplants, evidence from transplant recipients, the lack of legislative enforcement and a coherent reply from the Chinese regime, and the large-scale persecution and vilification of Falun Gong practitioners.
Public Forum – Behind the 'Rise' of China
Kilgour and Matas' whirlwind tour will include a press conference, a Parliament forum, and a public forum.
They have also requested private meetings with Prime Minister Helen Clark, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, and Trade and Defence Minister Phil Goff.
Kilgour and Matas will be joined by international experts, Dr Wang Juntao and Zhang Erping, at the public forum to discuss a wide range of China issues; from the dodgy products and manufacturing processes to organ harvesting; political and economic reform; information control and social unrest; the Olympics; and the role of the Western world to effect positive change for the Chinese people.
Amnesty International's Campaigns manager Gary Reese will round out the speakers with an insight into the massive human rights abuses across China and the campaign leading up to the Olympics.
Principle members of the New Zealand chapter of the CIPFG (Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China) will also be present at a press conference in a bid to push for human rights reform before the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
The Global Human Rights Torch Relay, lit in Athens by CIPFG on August 9, 2007, will come to New Zealand in January 2008.
Carole Curtis, Auckland Barrister and Solicitor and spokesperson for the CIPFG New Zealand is expected to launch the main route for the Global Human Rights Torch Relay in New Zealand.
The public forum – Behind the 'Rise' of China - will be held at Rutherford House Lecture Theatre One, Bunny St, Wellington at 7.30pm on Tuesday 11 September.
The events are organised by the CIPFG (Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China), a group formed in April, 2006, following evidence of widespread organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese regime.
Currently the Coalition holds more than 350 members worldwide, including MPs, Senators, lawyers, medical experts, religious leaders, community leaders, and human rights defenders.
Eight Kidneys Proffered
Among the addition of 15 new avenues of evidence, Bloody Harvest tells of one Asian man who was proffered eight kidneys over two separate trips to China before a match was found.
"In 2003 [the man] flew to Shanghai to obtain a new kidney for the $20,000 USD price negotiated before his departure... during the ensuing two weeks four kidneys were brought for testing against his blood and other factors. None proved compatible because of his anti‑bodies; all were taken away."
The man returned to the hospital two months later, where another four kidneys were tested. The eighth proved compatible and was successfully transplanted.
The surgeon, Dr. Tan Jianming of the Nanjing military region, wore his army uniform at times in the civilian hospital and carried sheets of paper containing lists of prospective "donors", based on various tissue and blood characteristics, from which he would select names, the revised report Bloody Harvest said.
"The doctor was observed at various times to leave the hospital in uniform and return 2‑3 hours later with containers bearing kidneys. Dr. Tan told the recipient that the eighth kidney came from an executed prisoner."
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