Ruhr Nachrichten (Germany): Protesting against human rights policies

It almost looked as if a major surgical procedure were being performed on Monday afternoon on Kortumstrasse Street: A man dressed in a surgical gown and wearing a mouth guard removed a bloody organ from a surgical incision on a mannequin placed on an operating table. The Falun Gong group from Bochum used this method to graphically depict organ removals occurring in China.

Putting pressure on China

“They are doing thousands of forced organ removals. We want the federal government to exert pressure on China in order to stop it”, commented Andreas Steinau of the Bochum group. His accusations are grave: “China systematically robs prisoners of their organs and a large proportion die as a consequence”, says Steinau. 41,500 organ transplants occurred during the period from 2000 to 2005, from unidentified sources according to an independent report issued by the former Canadian secretary of state, David Kilgour. This astronomical number of transplants correlates with 30,000 murdered victims for their organs.

Referring to the Kilgour report, Steinau claimed: “The major victims are Falun Gong practitioners”. The report points out an increase in transplant operations which paralleled the growing persecution of the meditation movement. Since 1999, China has taken measures to categorise the movement as a ‘sect’.

Olympic boycott

China’s political leadership has sanctioned the use of organs from formally sentenced prisoners. “In addition to that, there also exists a network of camps where organs are taken from imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners”, said a friend of Steinau’s, Carsten Borneman.