The ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese regime is not just a human rights issue, but also a form of genocide, according to human rights lawyer and Nobel Prize nominee, David Matas. He describes the regime’s treatment of Falun Gong adherents as a “cold genocide” that is more difficult to identify than mass killings that occur within a shorter period of time.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that combines meditation exercises with the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance”. Before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) crackdown in 1999, it was estimated that the practice had attracted around 70 million followers.
Since then, Falun Gong practitioners in China have been subjected to various forms of persecution. They have been detained in prisons, labor camps, and mental hospitals. They have faced social exclusion, sexual violation, and torture, with some cases resulting in death.
In 2019, an independent people’s tribunal chaired by British barrister and judge Sir Geoffrey Nice found that Falun Gong adherents were the main victims of forced organ harvesting, where their organs were harvested for transplantation purposes. This evidence supports previous claims of organ harvesting from Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in China.
According to the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC), the large pool of detainees in China allows for a disturbing practice called “reverse matching”. This involves selecting a prisoner who is a suitable match for a paying recipient from a pool of detainees. The selected prisoner is then killed and their organs are extracted for transplantation.
David Matas emphasizes that the genocide of Falun Gong practitioners is different from other mass killings because it is happening slowly over time. Rather than a sudden and visible event, thousands of practitioners are killed each year. He compares it to the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda, which occurred more rapidly and was easier to identify.
Matas rejects arguments that the mass killings of Falun Gong practitioners should not be classified as genocide because of a profit motive or the possibility of individuals renouncing their beliefs to avoid being killed. He emphasizes that genocide is the deliberate killing of an identifiable group, and leaving the group does not exempt individuals from being targeted.
Matas made these remarks at a rally in London commemorating the 24th anniversary of the CCP’s suppression of Falun Gong. The crackdown began on July 20, 1999, when practitioners across China were arrested, and Falun Gong was declared illegal by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The Chinese regime’s persecution of Falun Gong and the evidence of forced organ harvesting paints a disturbing picture of human rights abuses in China. The recognition of this as a form of genocide highlights the severity of the ongoing atrocities.
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