Bayerwald Echo (Germany): Human Rights Day Report

13th December 2006

Cham: A movie was shown as part of the Falun Gong workshop to commemorate International Human Rights Day on Sunday. Dr. Reinhold Kiehl talked about human rights violations in China.

Dr. Kiehl, a member of the “Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong” talked about repression, persecution and genocide of the Tibetan people, as well as the persecution of Christians and Falun Gong practitioners by the Communist party of China. For example, it is not possible to account for the origin of 41,000 organs used for transplantation in China between 2000 and 2005.

Kiehl talked about an investigative report on organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners published on July 6th 2006 by David Matas, a respected international human rights lawyer from Canada, and David Kilgour, a former Member of Parliament. Their conclusion was that many of the organs were taken from Falun Gong practitioners who are regarded as ‘enemies of the state’ by the communist regime.

David Kilgour is critical of the fact that the 2008 Olympic Games will be held in a country whose government is killing a group of people to sell organs. Dr. Kiel said that he shares this opinion.

The Canadian movie “Sandstorm”, which relates the story of a Chinese policeman who is involved in the persecution of the spiritual movement Falun Gong, was shown after his talk. Memories of torturing a Falun Gong practitioner are haunting the man.

Utz-Rainer Römer of the International Society for Human Rights asked the participants of the workshop to sign a petition for various causes. For example, the Christian attorney, Gao Zhisheng has been imprisoned since August because he supported Falun Gong practitioners. Römer offered the opinion that there should be more support for human rights.