BLOODY HARVEST

    Revised Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of

   Falun Gong Practitioners in China

   by David Matas, Esq. and Hon. David Kilgour, Esq.

   31 January 2007

   A. Introduction

   B. The Allegation

   C. Working Methods

   D. Difficulties of proof

   E. Methods of proof

   F. Elements of Proof and Disproof

    a) General considerations

    1) Human rights violations

    2) Health financing

    3) Army financing

    4) Corruption

    b) Considerations specific to organ harvesting

    5) Technological development

    6) Treatment of prisoners sentenced to death

    7) Organ donations

    8) Waiting times

    9) Incriminating Information on Websites

    10) Donor recipient interviews

    11) The money to be made

    12) Chinese transplant ethics

    13) Foreign transplant ethics

    14) Chinese transplant laws

    15) Foreign transplant laws

    16) Travel Advisories

    17) Pharmaceuticals

    18) Foreign state funding for care

    c) Considerations specific to Falun Gong

    19) A perceived threat

    20) A policy of persecution

    21) Incitement to hatred

    22) Physical persecution

    23) Massive arrests

    24) Deaths

    25) Unidentified

    26) Blood testing and organ examination

    27) Sources of past transplants

    28) Sources of future transplants

    29) Corpses with missing organs

    30) Admissions

    31) A confession

    32) Corroborating studies

    33) Government of China responses

   G. Further Research

   H. Conclusions

   I. Recommendations

   J. Commentary

   K. Appendices

    1. Letter of Invitation from CIPFG

    2. Biography of David Matas

    3. Biography of David Kilgour

    4. Letter to The Embassy of China

    5. The Recipient Experience

    6. Ethics of contact with China on Transplants

    7. Statements of the Government of China

    8. Edmonton Police Report of Wilful Promotion of Hatred by Chinese Consular Officials against Falun Gong

    9. Physical Persecution of Falun Gong

    10. Names of the Dead

    11. Witness Statements on the Unidentified

    12. Names of the Missing

    13. Blood Testing of Falun Gong Prisoners

    14. Transcript of Telephone Investigations

    15. Canada, US and Japan transplant statistics in 10 years

    16. Sujiatun

    17. Matas-Kilgour Response to the Chinese Government statements

    18. A Confession

    19. AI’s Records of Number of Executed Prisoners in China Each Year

    20. Corpses with Missing Organs

   A. Introduction

   The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong in China (CIPFG), has asked us to investigate allegations of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners in China. The coalition is a non‑governmental organization registered in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. with a branch in Ottawa, Canada. The request came formally by letter dated May 24, 2006 attached as an appendix to this report.

   The request was to investigate allegations that state institutions and employees of the government of the People's Republic of China have been harvesting organs from live Falun Gong practitioners, killing the practitioners in the process. In light of the seriousness of the allegations as well as our own commitment to respect for human rights, we accepted the request.

   David Matas is an immigration, refugee and international human rights lawyer in private practice in Winnipeg. He is actively involved in the promotion of respect for human rights as an author, speaker and participant in several human rights non‑governmental organizations.

   David Kilgour is a former member of Parliament and a former Secretary of State of the Government of Canada for the Asia Pacific region. Before he became a parliamentarian, he was a Crown prosecutor. The biographies of both authors are attached as appendices to this report.

   B. The Allegation

   It is alleged that Falun Gong practitioners are victims of live organ harvesting throughout China. The allegation is that organ harvesting is inflicted on unwilling Falun Gong practitioners at a wide variety of locations, pursuant to a systematic policy, in large numbers.

   Organ harvesting is a step in organ transplants. The purpose of organ harvesting is to provide organs for transplants. Transplants do not necessarily have to take place in the same place as the location of the organ harvesting. The two locations are often different; organs harvested in one place are shipped to another place for transplanting.

   The allegation is further that the organs are harvested from the practitioners while they are still alive. The practitioners are killed in the course of the organ harvesting operations or immediately thereafter. These operations are a form of murder.

   Finally, we are told that the practitioners killed in this way are then cremated. There is no corpse left to examine to identify as the source of an organ transplant.

   C. Working Methods

   We conducted our investigation independently from the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong in China, the Falun Dafa Association, any other organization, and any government. We sought to go to China unsuccessfully, but would be willing to go even subsequently to pursue the investigation.

   When we began our work, we had no views whether the allegations were true or untrue. The allegations were so shocking that they are almost impossible to believe. We would have much rather found the allegations to be untrue than to be true. The allegations, if true, represent a disgusting form of evil which, despite all the depravities humanity has seen, are new to this planet. The very horror made us reel back in disbelief. But that disbelief does not mean that the allegations are untrue.

   We were well aware of the statement of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter 1943 to a Polish diplomat in reaction to being told by Jan Karski about the Holocaust. Frankfurter said:

    "I did not say that this young man was lying. I said that I was unable to believe what he told me. There is a difference."

   After the Holocaust, it is impossible to rule out any form of depravity. Whether an alleged evil has been perpetrated can be determined only by considering the facts.

   After the first version of our report was released, on July 7, 2006 in Ottawa, we travelled extensively, publicising the report and promoting its recommendations. In the course of our travels, and as a result of the publicity surrounding the first version, we acquired substantial additional information. This second version incorporates this new information.

   Nothing we subsequently discovered shook our conviction in our original conclusions. But much which we later discovered reinforced it. This version presents, we believe, an even more compelling case for our conclusions than the first version did.

   D. Difficulties of Proof

   The allegations, by their very nature, are difficult either to prove or disprove. The best evidence for proving any allegation is eye witness evidence. Yet for this alleged crime, there is unlikely to be any eye witness evidence.

   The people present at the scene of organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners, if it does occur, are either perpetrators or victims. There are no bystanders. Because the victims, according to the allegation, are murdered and cremated, there is no body to be found, no autopsy to be conducted. There are no surviving victims to tell what happened to them. Perpetrators are unlikely to confess to what would be, if they occurred, crimes against humanity. Nonetheless, though we did not get full scale confessions, we garnered a surprising number of admissions through investigator phone calls.

   The scene of the crime, if the crime has occurred, leaves no traces. Once an organ harvesting is completed, the operating room in which it takes place looks like any other empty operating room.