(Clearwisdom.net) On November 1, 2007, US Congressman John R. Kuhl, Jr., wrote a letter to the Ambassador of China, to voice his support for efforts to investigate and halt the practice of involuntary organ harvesting of Falun Gong prisoners in China. Below is the text of the letter.
Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
November 1, 2007
Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong
Embassy of the People's Republic of China
Dear Ambassador Wenzhong:
I am writing to express my concerns about allegations that the People's Republic of China has been harvesting the organs of imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners without consent. My constituents have contacted me about this serious human rights issue, and I respectfully request any information that you can provide with respect to the status of China's efforts to investigate this practice and ensure an end to this form of human suffering.
Witness to these atrocities have stated that Falun Gong captives are shipped in sealed freight trains to facilities akin to concentration camps that are staffed by surgeons and equipped with crematoriums to dispose of the corpses and any other evidence. A report coauthored by Mr. David Kilgour, a former Member of the Canadian House of Commons, and Mr. David Matas, a Canadian human rights lawyer, corroborates such accounts, indicating that the sources of 41,500 organ transplants performed in China from 2000 to 2005 remain unexplained.
Additionally, a former staff member of the Liaoning Provincial Thrombus Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine has stated that since 2001, the facility has detained roughly 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners and removed many of their kidneys, livers, and corneas. Upon completion of the removal of their organs, the witness recalls, the practitioners were tossed into an incinerator, where their ashes were mixed together with burned charcoal.
Finally, I have heard from constituents in my Western New York Congressional District about the bodies on display at an exhibit at the Rochester Museum and Science Center in Rochester, New York. My constituents have relayed their concerns that some of the bodies may have been obtained from involuntary organ harvesting.
Episodes like these serve as a stark reminder that we must do all we can to curtail human rights abuses throughout the world. As a member of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, I believe that every nation should work to safeguard the basic rights of its citizens and should make every effort to reverse any abuses. The international community would be irresponsible to ignore charges of involuntary organ harvesting, for a lack of action would indicate a disregard for our most basic rights and liberties.
Therefore, I write to you today to voice my support for efforts to investigate and halt the practice of involuntary organ harvesting of Falun Gong prisoners, and to request any information you can provide regarding China's efforts in that direction. I very much appreciate your consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
John R. Kuhl, Jr.
Member of Congress