Radio Free Asia: Canadian Investigation Team Will Go to China to Collect Evidence on Organ Harvesting Incidents

Radio Free Asia reported on June 15th, 2006, an independent investigation team from Canada recently brought to the Chinese Embassy in Canada a request to go to Mainland China to investigate and collect evidence on allegations that the Chinese Communist Party is harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners in forced labour camps, and then killing the practitioners.

The investigation team is composed of the former director of the Asian Pacific Division of Canada's Foreign Affairs Ministry Mr. David Kilgour and well-known international human rights attorney Mr. David Matas. They wrote to the Chinese Embassy in Canada in early June with their request, and hope to obtain visas and visit Mainland China this month to conduct their investigation.

Matas requested a meeting with the Chinese Ambassador in Canada and admitted that it was an unusual request.

Matas stated, "The discussion we requested involves some important conditions. Usually those who visit China would not request a meeting with the Ambassador, and they only submit visa application forms. We are unable to schedule in advance, since this is not a normal procedure."

Matas said that the investigation team requested an independent investigation free of the CCP’s interference. Otherwise, the investigation would be meaningless.

He said, "Because we are conducting an investigation, we should have the freedom to do so. We would be looking to go to places without it being announced in advance; we'd be looking to speak to people that we want to speak to without it being approved by the government in advance and certainly without the government being present. Thus, once we're there we would in fact be free to investigate; not just presented with evidence that the CCP’s regime has itself assembled."

According to The Epoch Times, on March 9th, a witness exposed accounts of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners in the CCP’s forced labour camps. On May 8th, Mr. David Kilgour and Mr. David Matas held a press conference in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, announcing the formation of their investigation team and the start of their investigation.

Matas said that they have collected a lot of evidence, and they hoped to complete the investigation report by the end of June. Matas said that the CCP may not allow them to enter China for the investigation, which is indicative of the CCP’s attitude.

Matas said, "We don’t want to enter China illegally or in disguise. On the contrary, we are trying to face it calmly, this is the way we want to handle this."

Human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who once conducted a lot of investigations over the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the Mainland China, expressed that he would fully cooperate and support the Canadian investigation team to come to China.