Persecution and Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Discussed at U.S. Congressional Human Rights Caucus Meeting

The Congressional Human Rights Caucus in the House of Representatives recently held a meeting about the issue of Falun Gong. Representatives from international human rights organisations condemned the repression of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

According to a report from Radio Free Asia on July 21st, the director of Amnesty International’s office in Washington said that several hundred Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested recently, according to the independent investigation reports that Amnesty received.

The director said that the Chinese Communist Party is arresting, torturing and insulting Falun Gong practitioners. The CCP jails them without any lawful process. Practitioners’ families are also harassed by the CCP.

The director said that the CCP launched the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999, and arrested thousands of practitioners. According to Chinese labour camp policies, most practitioners were sentenced to labour camps for three years. When the practitioner's terms were completed, their sentences would probably be extended for one more year.

The director said that practitioners should have been released in 2004. He said that Amnesty doesn’t know the situation of those practitioners, or the number of them. It violates Chinese law if their sentences are extended.

The director said that Amnesty is concerned about the issue of Falun Gong, and called upon the Chinese government to release them.

Mr. Erping Zhang, a spokesman for Falun Gong, explained the reason why the CCP persecutes Falun Gong. He said: "The CCP has been trying to ruin traditional Chinese culture, because many things in communism conflict with traditional Chinese culture. It has brought many disasters to Chinese people, including the persecution of Falun Gong. The CCP thinks that Falun Gong, which has many practitioners, is a threat to it."

Regarding the recent allegations of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners, the director said that Amnesty’s investigator is still investigating it. They are very serious about issues like this.

The director of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus also said that they are very concerned about the allegations and the reports released by the Canadian independent investigation group. The director said that the Congressional Human Rights Caucus will investigate this issue. Like Amnesty, once the Congressional Human Rights Caucus has all the evidence, they will decide if they should take action or not.

The director of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus said that we should not forget the fact that thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are being jailed, tortured and killed.