Australia: Broadcasting Station Reports that CIPFG Australia Delegation Requests to Enter China and Investigate CCP’s Live Organ Removal

On November 27th, 2006, Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) interviewed Peter Westmore, leader of Victoria CIPFG Team and president of the National Civic Council. Mr. Westmore said that the team wanted to conduct an unrestricted investigation in China about the issue of organ removal from living Falun Gong practitioners. David Matas, international human rights lawyer, and David Kilgour, former Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) for Canada formed an independent investigation team and released their report to media on July 6th, 2006, titled "Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China." The report pointed out, "Based on what we now know, we have come to the regrettable conclusion that the allegations are true. We believe that there has been and continues today to be large scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners."

Mr. Westmore replied to questions from ABC, "The request to enter into China was sent to the Consult-General in Melbourne last week, so I think any decision will be made after consultation with the Embassy in Canberra, possibly Beijing. I am hoping we can have a reply this week."

In responding to a question on an unrestricted investigation in China, he said, "Because these allegations are very serious ones, ones which have been made not just in the report which you mentioned but separately by a number of people who have made reports of this horrific practice independently, we believe they are so serious they need to be investigated, particularly Australia is in process of negotiating a free trade agreement with China and obviously China hosting the Olympic Games in 2008."

In July Mr. Kilgour and Matas failed to receive visas to conduct an investigation in China. For the reason why the CCP cooperates with the Victoria team’s request, Mr. Westmore said that the CCP pays attention to its own international image. Around the release time of the Kilgour-Matas report, the CCP did two things: One was it issued regulation on organ transplantation. The other was it admitted the fact that the world knows that CCP harvests organs from death-row inmates. Victoria CIPFG Team will investigate whether or not and how the regulation is applied.

In response to how the team would conduct the investigation in China, Mr. Westmore said, "We are not operating completely in a vacuum. For example, when I first heard the allegations I simply did not believe it. What I did was I got on the net myself and put into Google ‘Organ transplants in China’ and within 5 to 10 minutes I was at the websites in English from China where organ transplant clinics which are offering me kidneys and livers and available at a very short notice, a period of less than a month. So those are places where I would think it would be important to discuss with those clinics the practises which have been adopted, and certainly the places which the organs have come."