To: GST who wrote (59482 ) 4/25/2006 3:37:48 PM From: shades Respond to of 110194 human capital issues that will make or break this country in a global economy We already had our civil war - now everyone sits and watches oprah in happiness together - is the social chaos here nearly what is happening in China? Rome fell from internal rot eh? Is this baseless propoganda or is there merit to these concerns?en.wikipedia.org According to The Epoch Times, Timothy Cooper, the executive director of Worldrights, said in a Washington D.C. rally against alleged Chinese human rights violations (March 12): 'If what has been reported is accurate, then Shenyang has become the Auschwitz of China. But this time, unlike the situation during the Second World War in Nazi Germany, America must not fail to act. America must not fail to confront these atrocities — unimaginable in any civilized society' and 'A whole new level of depravity is being practiced by the CCP.' Also, Nina Shea from Freedom House has called for investigation of the case. Guido Tastenhoye, a member of the Belgian parliament, has questioned Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel De Gucht about the imprisonment of Falun Gong practitioners in Sujiatun. [63]. Worldrights and Freedom House themselves have not covered any of the above in their websites and press releases. The Washington Times covered the allegations on 24 March 2006 in an article by Bill Gertz. According to the article, Jin Zhong (a pseudonym for the journalist who fled China recently) said he first learned of the harvesting operation between October and December. Mr Jin, who in the past has been a contributor to a Japanese news agency, calls Sujiatun 'a murder sponsored by a state'. Jin came across the underground detention center while researching the Chinese government's response to SARS. The article claims that several other hospital workers have also revealed details about the prisoner organ harvesting. Jin Zhong has had to hide his true identity after being threatened by Chinese government agents. He was arrested twice for his reporting and recently fled to the United States, where he hopes to seek political asylum. Jin also professes that the bodies of prisoners were burned in the boiler room of the hospital and that boiler room workers had taken jewelry and watches from the dead and sold them. [64] On 28 March, over two weeks after the allegations surfaced, the Associated Press reported on the Chinese government's rebuttal. The ministry spokesman Qin Gang stated: 'This absurd lie is not worth refuting and no one will buy it.' He also urged reporters to go to Shenyang's Sujiatun district to look into the claims. [67][68] Reuters released an article entitled 'U.N. envoy looks at Falun Gong torture allegations' on 30 March. According to the report, the United Nations torture investigator Manfred Nowak shall be looking into the Sujiatun case. 'I am presently in the process of investigating as far as I can these allegations ... If I come to the conclusion that it is a serious and well-founded allegation, then I will officially submit it to attention of the Chinese government,' he told a news briefing. Nowak also stated that he found torture widespread in China when he got to visit the country in late 2005 after a decade of negotiations. Furthermore, Nowak's new report insisted on the Chinese government to abolish its 're-education through labour' system and urged authorities to release all political prisoners and people held for exercising their right to freedom of speech, assembly and religion. China has denied earlier abuse and torture charges made by Nowak and asked the U.N. envoy to 'think again.' [67] On 30 March, The Epoch Times claimed that a new informant, identifying himself as a veteran military doctor in Shenyang military zone, has told about a system of similar concentration camps in China. Because the Chinese government has defined Falun Gong practitioners as class enemies, they're officially declared as felons. The informant states: 'The reports from outside China about Sujiatun Concentration Camp imprisoning Falun Gong practitioners are true, although some of the details are incorrect.' He says that more than 10,000 people were detained in Sujiatun in early 2005, but now the number of detainees is maintained at 600-750. Many detainees have been transferred to other camps, especially after the news on Sujiatun was publicized. The informant also asserts that the hospital in Sujiatun is only one of 36 similar camps all over China. Jilin camp, codenamed 672-S, holds over 120,000 people, not only Falun Gong practitioners. Specially dispatched freight trains can transfer 5,000-7,000 people in one night, and everyone on the trains is handcuffed to specially designed handrails on top of the ceiling, claims the informant. On 1 April, The Australian published initial finding from US congressional researcher that the concentration camp allegation is substantially exaggerated. On 4 April, Falun Gong announced the establishment of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong in China (CIPFG) on their 'Clearwisdom' website [69]. However, as of April 21, 2006, despite Qin Gang's invitation, several CIPFG members have been denied visas to China according to The Epoch Times[70]. On 14 April, US State Department released a statement [[71] [72] that 'found no evidence that the site is being used for any function other than as a normal public hospital', in a tour of the Sujiatun site arranged by the Chinese government. On 20 April, the first two witnesses first time went to the public about the Communist concentration camps [73].