Human Rights Abuses in China Should be Required Reading for Olympics

SYDNEY—"It is still possible to live on the planet as a human being," said Phil Glendenning, one of the speakers at the Australian launch of the Human Rights Torch Relay (HRTR) in NSW Parliament on Friday August 10.

"The Olympics stands for unity, it stands for justice, it stands for peace," he said, "it doesn't stand for bread and circuses to distract us from the reality that lies beneath contempt for the Olympic charter."

Mr Glendenning is the director of the human rights organisation the Edmund Rice Centre, which is a member of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) that initiated the HRTR.

Tens of thousands of kilometres away a number of Australians, one being 1964 Olympian Jan Becker, were part of the HRTR lighting ceremony that was held in Athens on Thursday August 9.

Inspired by the Olympic torch, the HRTR will travel the world, raising awareness of human rights abuses occurring inside China committed by China's Communist regime, most notably the reports of the killing of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience for their bodily organs.

"The Torch Relay will… involve participants in more than a hundred cities in Europe, Asia, North America and this country," Mr Glendenning said, "spreading the message that the Olympics and crimes against humanity cannot co-exist in China."

Mr Glendenning told reporters he became aware of the scale of the persecution of Falun Gong after reading the investigative report by former Canadian secretary of state for Asia Pacific, David Kilgour, and human rights lawyer David Matas about the hidden practise of forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Mr Glendenning said that the reports should be vital reading for all athletes, officials and journalists who travel to China for the Beijing Olympics next year. He also stressed that the Matas-Kilgour report be vital reading for all the members of the International Olympic committee.

Also attending the press conference was the Human Rights Commissioner from 2000–2005 Dr Sev Ozdwoski who said the Matas-Kilgour report could not be ignored.

"I read it – I became convinced that it has a factual merit and a factual base to that report," said Dr Ozdwoski who is also a member of the CIPFG.

Dr Ozdwoski quoted the English Philosopher, Edmund Burke saying; "'the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil – is for the good man to do nothing' – and many good men do nothing, and that is a concern.

"And some people do nothing simply because they do not believe that such oppression is possible," he said. "Many people who live in Australia have never ever experienced any oppression…they simply do not believe that it is possible to slaughter people for their [body] parts."

Dr Ozdwoski also believes that the persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual movement in China is genocide as defined by the United Nations.

"The persecution began in 1999, and it's not only about freedom of religion it is basically about basic violations of all human rights – when you take the universal declaration of human rights, basically everything is being done to Falun Gong – people are arrested, they are bashed, torture is rampant."

He pointed out that the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Novak reported that 66 per cent of all torture victims in China are Falun Gong practitioners.

"Falun Gong members are being killed for their organs and other people are making money out of it. When you look at re-education camps and imprisonment – according to the UN and according to the Chinese official figures – about 50 per cent of a quarter million inmates in China are Falun Gong supporters, when you look at the UN's definition of genocide, it is genocide; it meets all the criteria of genocide – a particular people are selected, selected because of their beliefs and systematically destroyed."

Dr Ozdwoski also pointed out the mass of human rights abuses across the board in China – the crackdown on journalists and human rights activists, forced evictions, abuse of labour rights, growing inequalities, massive pollution, the brutal occupation of Tibet and the widespread use of the death penalty.

The press conference was hosted by NSW Parliamentarian Dr Gordon Moyes who has had long standing interests and involvement with China and the human rights abuses committed by the communist authorities against the Chinese people. Mr Bich Phan from the Vietnamese community of Australia also spoke at the conference.

The HRTR is due in Australia in mid October.