March 14, 2007- Falun Gong News Bulletin

• TWO WOMEN FROM HEILONGJIANG DEAD IN DOUBLE TORTURE CASE
  
• ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE PUBLISHES ON FALUN GONG ORGAN HARVESTING
  
• FALUN GONG MAN IMPRISONED FOR MEETING WITH EUROPEAN OFFICIAL
  
• U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE REPORTS ON FALUN GONG ABUSES
  
• ELECTED OFFICIALS DISQUALIFIED IF THEY SUPPORT FALUN GONG

TWO WOMEN FROM HEILONGJIANG DEAD IN DOUBLE TORTURE CASE
The Falun Dafa Information Center has learned of the wrongful deaths of Ms. Xu Hongmei and Ms. Shen Zili following horrific torture at the hands of communist authorities in China. Xu, 37, and Shen, 49, both of Heilongjiang province, were arrested on January 13, 2007, on grounds of their association with the Falun Gong meditation group. Sources in China report that on February 27, following a week-long spell of “savage” beatings and torture by police, the two died painful deaths, both convulsing and coughing blood. Family of Xu and Shen indicate that the women’s bodies were covered with welts and bruises. Both bodies were hastily cremated between 8:00 and 9:00 A.M. on March 1 under police watch.
Full story: /displayAnArticle.asp?ID=9474

JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE PUBLISHES ON FALUN GONG ORGAN HARVESTING
In the March 2007 edition of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine appears an article by Mr. Tom Treasure, entitled, “The Falun Gong, Organ Transplantation, the Holocaust and Ourselves.” It confirms the plausibility, from a medical standpoint, of allegations of systematic organ harvesting from live and unwilling Falun Gong prisoners of conscience in China. The author does so by analyzing some of the events leading to the Holocaust in which medical personnel were involved and comparing these to the circumstances surrounding the Falun Gong persecution, statistics on transplantation in China, and general practices related to transplantation. The author states, “As the allegation unfolds, the story seems horrific to the point of being beyond belief. So alarmed was I on learning of this allegation that I struggled to make sense of it. The element of the story that horrifies me most, if it is true, is that it is my medical colleagues, the doctors, who perpetrate these acts.”
Full article text: http://www.jrsm.org/current.shtml
Report on organ harvesting cited in the article: http://investigation.go.saveinter.net/

FALUN GONG MAN IMPRISONED FOR MEETING WITH EUROPEAN OFFICIAL
On February 8, 2007 Falun Gong Mr. Cao Dong was sentenced to 5 years in labor camp for having met with a foreign official and exposing human rights abuses in China. Mr. Cao had been seized in Bejing by State Security Agents on May 21, 2006 immediately following a meeting with Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott, Vice President of the European Parliament. Mr. McMillan-Scott had come to Beijing to investigate the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of the Falun Gong, including atrocities related to organ harvesting. In an interview summary prepared by McMillan-Scott, the European Parliament member says he “inquired whether Cao was aware of any organ harvesting camps in China. Cao said he definitely knew of them and knew people who had been sent to these camps.” After Cao was taken away, he was detained for more than four months before Chinese officials issued an official arrest warrant for him. McMillan-Scott’s demands for information from the Chinese government since then, and a timely release of Cao, have gone unanswered.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE REPORTS ON FALUN GONG ABUSES
The U.S. Department of State’s annual human rights Country Reports, released March 6, confirm in chilling detail allegations of abuse at the hands of China’s communist authorities. According to the report, “In March UN Special Rapporteur Nowak reaffirmed earlier findings that torture remained widespread,” adding that “Nowak reported that beatings with fists, sticks, and electric batons continued to be the most common tortures. He also found that prisoners continued to suffer cigarette burns, prolonged periods of solitary confinement, and submersion in water or sewage … Some foreign observers estimated that Falun Gong adherents constituted at least half of the 250,000 officially recorded inmates in reeducation-through-labor camps, while Falun Gong sources overseas placed the number even higher. In March UN Special Rapporteur Nowak reported that Falun Gong practitioners accounted for 66 percent of victims of alleged torture while in government custody.”
Full text of U.S. Report: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78771.htm

ELECTED OFFICIALS DISQUALIFIED IF THEY SUPPORT FALUN GONG
Report entitled “New Curbs on SAR Deputies” from Hong Kong’s newspaper, “The Standard”
BEIJING, MARCH 9–“Hong Kong and Macau deputies elected to the National People’s Congress will be disqualified if they are found to be members of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China or the Falun Gong, according to deputies attending the ongoing plenary sessions of the NPC [National People’s Congress] and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in the capital. The first bill setting out what is described as ‘open and fair’ rules for the election of local deputies from the two special administrative regions was tabled at Thursday’s plenary session, with a warning by key Beijing officials that ‘unwelcome elements’ … will be screened out by the country’s top legislature.”