Germany: Large-Scale Media Coverage of Seminar Exposing the CCP's Organ Harvesting from Living Falun Gong Practitioners

During a discussion seminar held near Frankfurt on March 30th 2007, Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas and former Canadian Secretary of State and Member of Parliament David Kilgour's report on the CCP's harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners became the focus of the forum. During a press conference on the same day, the organizers of this seminar, the International Human Rights Committee, talked about the deteriorating human rights under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), using the investigation report as an important example, leading to large-scale media coverage. At the seminar, a German MP in his closing speech emphasized the importance of giving more publicity and raising awareness about this issue in Germany.

Matas and Kilgour attend the International Human Rights Committee's press conference on March 30th

Matas and Kilgour told more than a hundred attendees and representatives from several media about their main findings from the investigation. Whether it is the official statistics from the internet or results from telephone interviews, the 30 or 40 pieces of evidence that have been validated and made public today, all point to one conclusion: Falun Gong practitioners detained in China are being systematically murdered for their organs, which are sold to patients who are desperate for healthy organs to keep them alive. Dai Ying, a Falun Gong practitioner from Norway explained how she was made to have a health check for no apparent reason when she was detained in a labour camp in China. Only after leaving China did she find out that they were recording data for the organ bank.

The information disclosed by the two Canadian investigators not only shocked everyone at the conference, but also incited people to ask about how to stop these crimes sooner, which further drew the attention and interest of the German media.

After the conference, Germany's second-largest newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published a long report on the accusation that the CCP is harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. The beginning of the article clearly points out that even though the Chinese Communist government has already admitted to using organs taken from executed prisoners for transplant operations, "on the Chinese 'market', there has been a sudden increase in organs", but "every death-row criminal only has two kidneys and one liver". The article mentions that one reason Falun Gong practitioners have become the victims of live organ harvesting is because "this peaceful meditation practice brings great health benefits, and has saved China's health organizations millions (before the start of the persecution)."

On the second day of the seminar, Germany's third-largest newspaper Die Welt published an article filling an entire page about the findings of the Canadian investigators, entitled "Stolen Hearts". On the law banning the organ-trade passed by the CCP on July 1st 2006, the article explains, using the words of independent Canadian investigator Kilgour: "In China, there is always a huge gap in time frame between passing a law and executing it." The article reveals that last November, a Belgian MP, Patrik Vankrukelsven made calls to two hospitals in Beijing saying that he desperately needed an urgent kidney transplant. Both hospitals immediately expressed that they could provide a kidney for 50 thousand Euros. However this law was passed in July last year, and should have come into action in China four months previously. From this we can see that the endorsement of one law has not stopped the organ trade in China, which is becoming more rampant each day.

The third-largest newspaper in Germany "Die Welt" published a whole-page article about the independent investigation on the CCP's harvesting organs from Falun Gong practitioners

On the same day as the press conference, Radio Vatican broadcast a programme in German about practitioners of Falun Gong who had become victims of the illegal organs trade. Wiesbadener Kurier also published a report: "The most outrageous accusation in the report is that in China, practitioners of the banned practice Falun Gong are not only persecuted, they are also being used as live organ stocks within a long stretch of time. When needed, their organs are removed, they are murdered and their bodies are thrown into the incinerator to have any evidence destroyed... Since 2001, at least 41,500 of them have been used as organ sources for transplant operations. The authorities have given no explanations."

The German Press Association (DPA), and regional newspapers Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger and Taunus Zeitung also made corresponding reports on this topic. Before that, the Journalismus Nachrichten von Heute website published a long report from Geneva, calling the two Canadian investigators "hunters of the illegal organ traders" and furthermore explaining in detail the contents of their investigation.