Executive Director of Amnesty International Supports Investigating Chinese Communist Party's Live Organ Harvesting Atrocity

On August 24, 2006, David Kilgour, former Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) for Canada, and Vice President of the European Parliament Edward McMillan-Scott visited New Zealand and held a public forum at the Law School of the University of Victoria to expose the Chinese Communist Party's atrocity of harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. Executive director of Amnesty International New Zealand, Mr. Ced Simpson spoke at the forum and supported an international investigation into Chinese Communist Party (CCP) atrocity.

Executive Director of Amnesty International New Zealand Mr. Ced Simpson spoke at the forum and supported an international investigation into Chinese Communist Party atrocity

In his speech Simpson said that, since the start of the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong, hundreds of thousands of practitioners have been arrested. International Amnesty has collected many cases in which practitioners were tortured. The evidence includes pictures and other materials. The cases collected by AI attest that the persecution is brutal and that practitioners from of all walks of life, including high ranking military officials, police officials, farmers, and teachers, have been affected. They are harassed and arrested, and many are tortured. Some have died in custody. Their only "crime" is exercising their freedom of belief and basic human rights.

Simpson said that the CCP responded to Mr. David Kilgour's report by saying that China's organ transplants conform to World Health Organization standards, but this is not actually true, because it is common knowledge that China has been using organs from death-penalty criminals. This is not in keeping with WHO requirements. At the same time, statistics show that the incidents of death penalty in China is higher than in the rest of the world combined.

Simpson said that Amnesty International supports an international investigation into the Chinese Communist Party's atrocity of harvesting organs from living practitioners. He said he was worried that some politicians didn't want to take action, claiming that AI has not yet verified it. Sometimes a human rights organization can't thoroughly investigate a severe claim, especially when China is involved. But this can't be an excuse for the politicians not to investigate. In China, such investigations are very difficult, because the details are regarded as a "national secret." Some Falun Gong practitioners were arrested because they made public their family members or friends' encounters. Simpson said that no one shall use "no investigation result" as an excuse to not support an international investigation.