2010 Nobel Peace Prize nominee signs newly-released book « Bloody Harvest »

03/15/2010

Secret China (cindy liu)

New York – March 11, 2010 – David Matas, an award-winning international human rights attorney, member of Rights & Democracy’s Board of Directors, and nominee for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, attended the release of his new book, « Bloody Harvest : The Killing of Falun Gong for their Organs », and signed copies at the Alfred Lerner Hall in Columbia University.

At the book-signing event, co-author Matas discussed why he had decided to assume the responsibility of investigating the issue of organ harvesting after having heard the allegations from a medical doctor's wife back in 2006. Under the alias of "Annie", the lady told that Falun Gong practitioners in China were being killed for their corneas.

Matas said, “As an international human rights lawyer, I have worked with many major human rights groups, and I know Falun Gong has been persecuted in China.” “Investigation of organ harvesting is a very complicated issue. I know if we don’t do it, nobody will do it.” “It is a crime without a crime scene. It's an operating room so it's cleaned up afterwards. So there are no surviving victims and there's no corpse."

Matas and co-author David Kilgour found a way to launch an investigation by creating a list of evidentiary trails that could either prove or disprove the allegations.

"Basically, in a nutshell, what we came up with was that every evidentiary trail that we could think of, that could have disproved the allegations, went nowhere. Every evidentiary trail that proved the allegations gave us something. The result of which is, putting it all together, that 'standing back from the pile,' so to speak, we came to the conclusion that this was true, that what Annie had said was true. Not just for corneas, but for all organs. Not just from 2002 to 2003, like she talked about, but from 2001 till when our reports came out. Not just in Sujiatun [the location of the medical facility where Annie’s husband worked], but in all of China," said Matas.

The evidentiary trails included a number of different areas that would be necessary for or would allow for the harvesting of organs from people. Matas said that one evidentiary trail was calling the hospitals, posing as patients looking for organ transplants, and asking the doctors whether the organs were from Falun Gong practitioners on the grounds that since Falun Gong practitioners do qigong-like exercises, they must have healthy organs.

Of the calls, 10% confirmed that the organs were from Falun Gong practitioners, with voice recorded admissions.

Two reports have been released on the alleged harvesting of organs from imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners prior to this book.

Matas was nominated along with Kilgour, a former Canadian Crown Prosecutor, member of Parliament of Canada, and Secretary of State, by Boris Wrzesneskyi, a member of Parliament of Canada, and Balfour Hakak, Chair of the Hebrew Writers Association, for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for their work investigating the alleged killings of Falun Gong followers for their organs in China.

« Bloody Harvest »: The Killing of Falun Gong for their Organs » was twice on the best-selling list in Winnipeg, Canada, since its publication.