Organ Harvesting Confirmed By a Former Detention Centre Prisoner

In early 2006, The Epoch Times first exposed the Chinese Communist Party's crime of harvesting organs from live Falun Gong practitioners. Since then new evidence continues to surface.

Recently a witness from Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province has come forward and revealed what he discovered during his detention in Wuxi City No.2 Detention Centre. According to the witness, many cases of organ harvesting occurred during 2002.

He was detained from 2005 to 2007 because he made opposing comments about China's unlawful control of personal speech and media. During his imprisonment he learned that not only death row prisoners were killed for their organs, but Falun Gong practitioners too. For the safety of the witness's family in China, we will not disclose his name.

Reporter: Under what circumstance were you able to find out about the organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners?

Witness: Between March 2005 and early 2007, I was imprisoned in Wuxi City No.2 Detention Centre. To add insult to my injury, the prison guards repeatedly moved me from cell to cell. Each time I was moved to a different cell, the despicable guards told the inmates I was nuts and that they shouldn't talk to me. The inmates were even instructed to give me a hard time. During my detention, I was kept in 17 different cells. Inmates that had been imprisoned for a long time told me that organs were harvested from about two or three Falun Gong practitioners in every cell between 2002 and 2003.

Reporter: How did the subject come up?

Witness: In the detention centre, each inmate must have at least two physical examinations a year. During the examination, the veteran inmates quietly told me, "It's time to harvest organs from these people. Look at those strong young men. It is their organs that will be harvested."

Reporter: Who were those "strong young men"?

Witness: Death row inmates and Falun Gong practitioners. The doctors carefully examined these people, but hardly paid attention to other inmates. It is no longer kept a secret that organs are removed from death row prisoners. Executions are carried out before the Chinese New Year and October 1st every year, so physical examinations are made in January and September when the doctors check on the health of prisoners to determine which parts are fit for organ transplant. These veteran inmates have noticed that Falun Gong practitioners are examined with unusual care. This means they may be targeting them.

Reporter: How did these veteran inmates know that Falun Gong practitioners' organs were harvested?

Witness: Falun Gong practitioners have their own spiritual belief. Those inmates think they are just obstinate. All it takes for practitioners to be released is to guarantee in writing never to practice Falun Gong again, but they will not do it. So they are subjected to beating and torture. Sometimes the guards will deny practitioners food. Other times the guards feed them pigswill or food spoiled by fungi. I know for a fact that there are two prison guards in each detention centre in Wuxi whose job is to beat up inmates. They will beat and torture practitioners until they are nearly dead. Sometimes the prisoners suffer internal injuries that prevent them from eating. Sometimes their lips and mouths are injured by severe kicking, making them unable to eat. After administering saline solutions for two days, the guards will stop and ignore them. By then, these practitioners are half dead. The next day they are hauled out of the cell and their organs will be removed. We will never see them again.

Reporter: How can these inmates be certain these practitioners are killed for their organs, instead of being released?

Witness: You asked me how the veteran inmates know for sure if these practitioners are killed for their organs instead of being released? Firstly, these people will not promise to stop practising Falun Gong, so there is no way they will be released. Second, practitioners are taken to an isolated room. Many doctors dressed in white will go to the room and collect them, and they are never seen again. One day a new prisoner was put in our cell. He told us that a practitioner's family was arguing with the guards outside. They questioned why their relative had died so suddenly and why the body was cremated before it was shown to the family. The inmates were puzzled. After all, that practitioner was alive when he was removed from the cell two days ago. How could he die so suddenly? He must have been murdered. Why did they deny his family the right to see the body before cremation? It is because his organs had been removed. Think about it. They harvest organs from executed prisoners, why wouldn't they go one step further?

Reporter: Does this happen to every cell? How often?

Witness: I was imprisoned for two years and kept in 17 different cells. In each cell, one inmate related real stories about practitioners being killed for their organs, often more than once. Even though I didn't witness the crime in person, I did see how violently they beat up Falun Gong practitioners. The guards would bind them to a board with their limbs stretched out and keep them tied for long hours. They would not be allowed to visit the toilet. I have also witnessed guards prying open practitioners' mouths with sharpened bamboo sticks for force-feeding or stuffing their mouths with wooden blocks. I have no idea if they have changed the way they operate now.

Reporter: In other words, inmates in detention centres knew about organ harvesting from live Falun Gong practitioners as early as 2002, before the crime was exposed to the world?

Witness: That's right. Inmates from detention centres knew about it in 2002. When I read the reports about the organ harvesting after I left China, I totally believed and agreed in the accuracy of the reports.