30/08/06, Geoffrey York, Chinese dissident disputes organ-harvest allegations
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Key witness's evidence fabricated, Wu says.
BEIJING -- A famed Chinese dissident and labour-camp expert has concluded a witness fabricated evidence to support allegations that China runs a secret concentration camp where organs are harvested from thousands of Falun Gong prisoners.
The dissident, Harry Wu, is challenging a key witness who is widely cited by Falun Gong to support their assertions that 6,000 members of the spiritual movement were sent to a Nazi-style concentration camp where three-quarters of them were systematically killed for their organs.
However, a prominent Canadian lawyer who investigated the accusations says he is still convinced that large numbers of Falun Gong members were probably killed by Chinese authorities after their organs were extracted.
The Falun Gong spiritual movement is banned in China, where its millions of adherents are viewed with deep suspicion and routinely imprisoned.
Mr. Wu, who spent 19 years as a prisoner in a Chinese gulag and later became a leading researcher on Chinese labour camps, was denounced as a "butcher" and "Communist spy" by the Falun Gong after he questioned the account.
The witness, the ex-wife of a Chinese surgeon, said her husband told her that he removed the corneas from about 2,000 Falun Gong prisoners who were killed and incinerated after various organs were extracted from them.
Mr. Wu concluded that the witness was unreliable and her story was fabricated. He said the Falun Gong prevented him from meeting this witness and a second witness who made a similar claim. He sent his own investigators to the alleged site of the "concentration camp" in northeastern China and concluded that there was no trace of one.
"If 4,500 live persons had their organs removed and then their corpses were destroyed, then this is an unthinkably big deal in world history," Mr. Wu wrote later. "There has to be enough solid eyewitnesses, evidence and investigation. Based only upon the indirect testimony of two witnesses, the outside world will think that this was just propaganda."
If the Falun Gong allegation is correct, it would mean that at least 120 people per month had their organs removed and were killed -- "technically infeasible and impossible" in a single facility, Mr. Wu said.
Mr. Wu has some credibility on the issue because he is a long-time expert on the harvesting of organs from executed prisoners in China. He says the Chinese authorities have brutally extracted the organs of death-sentence prisoners "on a large-scale, long-term basis in violation of the basic principles of human rights."
Canadian lawyers David Matas and David Kilgour, however, have lent credence to the Falun Gong accusations. In a report released last month after a two-month investigation, the lawyers concluded that authorities are executing a "large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience" and seizing their vital organs -- including hearts, kidneys, livers and corneas -- for sale at high prices to foreigners and others.
In an interview, Mr. Matas rejected Mr. Wu's conclusion that the concentration camp does not exist. "He seemed to make up his mind before he sent his investigators to the site," the human-rights lawyer said.
And despite Mr. Wu's criticism of the testimony by the ex-wife of the surgeon, Mr. Matas said she seems credible and reliable, even if her testimony is not corroborated.
"We are satisfied that the ex-wife of the surgeon was telling the truth about what she saw and heard," he said. "But there remains to be explored whether she understood correctly or misunderstood what she heard, as well as whether what she heard others tell her was accurate in substance."
Mr. Matas said he is not surprised that Mr. Wu's investigators were unable to find evidence at the site.
"I wouldn't have expected them to see anything," he said. "They didn't find anything, but that doesn't mean anything. If this is happening, it's happening in an underground way. The victims are cremated and there are no autopsies. There are no bystanders."
He also rejected Mr. Wu's suggestion that the Falun Gong allegations are technically impossible. Surgeons can remove an eye, for example, in just 10 to 20 minutes, he said.
BEIJING -- A famed Chinese dissident and labour-camp expert has concluded a witness fabricated evidence to support allegations that China runs a secret concentration camp where organs are harvested from thousands of Falun Gong prisoners.
The dissident, Harry Wu, is challenging a key witness who is widely cited by Falun Gong to support their assertions that 6,000 members of the spiritual movement were sent to a Nazi-style concentration camp where three-quarters of them were systematically killed for their organs.
However, a prominent Canadian lawyer who investigated the accusations says he is still convinced that large numbers of Falun Gong members were probably killed by Chinese authorities after their organs were extracted.
The Falun Gong spiritual movement is banned in China, where its millions of adherents are viewed with deep suspicion and routinely imprisoned.
Mr. Wu, who spent 19 years as a prisoner in a Chinese gulag and later became a leading researcher on Chinese labour camps, was denounced as a "butcher" and "Communist spy" by the Falun Gong after he questioned the account.
The witness, the ex-wife of a Chinese surgeon, said her husband told her that he removed the corneas from about 2,000 Falun Gong prisoners who were killed and incinerated after various organs were extracted from them.
Mr. Wu concluded that the witness was unreliable and her story was fabricated. He said the Falun Gong prevented him from meeting this witness and a second witness who made a similar claim. He sent his own investigators to the alleged site of the "concentration camp" in northeastern China and concluded that there was no trace of one.
"If 4,500 live persons had their organs removed and then their corpses were destroyed, then this is an unthinkably big deal in world history," Mr. Wu wrote later. "There has to be enough solid eyewitnesses, evidence and investigation. Based only upon the indirect testimony of two witnesses, the outside world will think that this was just propaganda."
If the Falun Gong allegation is correct, it would mean that at least 120 people per month had their organs removed and were killed -- "technically infeasible and impossible" in a single facility, Mr. Wu said.
Mr. Wu has some credibility on the issue because he is a long-time expert on the harvesting of organs from executed prisoners in China. He says the Chinese authorities have brutally extracted the organs of death-sentence prisoners "on a large-scale, long-term basis in violation of the basic principles of human rights."
Canadian lawyers David Matas and David Kilgour, however, have lent credence to the Falun Gong accusations. In a report released last month after a two-month investigation, the lawyers concluded that authorities are executing a "large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience" and seizing their vital organs -- including hearts, kidneys, livers and corneas -- for sale at high prices to foreigners and others.
In an interview, Mr. Matas rejected Mr. Wu's conclusion that the concentration camp does not exist. "He seemed to make up his mind before he sent his investigators to the site," the human-rights lawyer said.
And despite Mr. Wu's criticism of the testimony by the ex-wife of the surgeon, Mr. Matas said she seems credible and reliable, even if her testimony is not corroborated.
"We are satisfied that the ex-wife of the surgeon was telling the truth about what she saw and heard," he said. "But there remains to be explored whether she understood correctly or misunderstood what she heard, as well as whether what she heard others tell her was accurate in substance."
Mr. Matas said he is not surprised that Mr. Wu's investigators were unable to find evidence at the site.
"I wouldn't have expected them to see anything," he said. "They didn't find anything, but that doesn't mean anything. If this is happening, it's happening in an underground way. The victims are cremated and there are no autopsies. There are no bystanders."
He also rejected Mr. Wu's suggestion that the Falun Gong allegations are technically impossible. Surgeons can remove an eye, for example, in just 10 to 20 minutes, he said.
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