September 22, 2006

A group of Falun Gong practitioners has begun a tour of Kansas to draw attention to the Chinese government's treatment of fellow adherents, particularly the horrendous charge that Communist China is harvesting the organs of Falun Gong prisoners for sale.

"We're spreading the word about this terrible human rights violation going on," said Felice Boewe of Lawrence, during the group's stop in Hiawatha Monday.

"We want to tell everyone about this and ask them to make phonecalls to the Whitehouse hotline and ask the president to pressure the Chinese government to stop this."

The charge first was made in March by a Chinese journalist who had escaped from the country. The Chinese government, vehemently denies it.

In July, two Canadian human rights lawyers issued a report on their investigation into the organ-harvesting allegation. Investigators David Matas and David Kilgour [...] confirmed the charge.

Inspired by the Matas-Kilgour report, Kansas Falun Gong practitioners began their "SOS Car Tour."

On Monday, Felice Boewe, Cat Rooney and Joye Mitchell left from Lenexa and visited Topeka, Holton, Hiawatha and Atchison, providing information packets to local governments, libraries and the media.

"It is our hope that with our stories and this information the good-hearted people of our state will know more about this brutal campaign," said Rooney, a Eudora resident.