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Hurry Wu: My viewpoint of the alleged 'Sujiatun Camp' and how it is formed

2007-11-05 Source:China Information Center Author:By: Wu Harry

In late February 2006, after half a year's investigation, my team began to write a report on the organ transplant in the Huaxi Hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. My plan was to publicize the report when China's president Hu Jintao visited US in late April, so as to remind the whole world of Beijing's large-scale and long-time theft of organs of the death row prisoners. It is a sever violation of the basic human rights and an appalling violence of the CCP.

(2) In February, the cooperation between the China Information Center and Kan Zhongguo (Secret China News), one of the Falun Gong media, primarily initiated. The front page of the Secret China News web added a new column exclusively for articles from CIC's Guancha and the Kang Zhongguo weekly published three or four articles from Guangcha in each issue.

On March 10, 2006, Falun Gong's leading media, Da Ji Yuan (The Epoch Times) published a headline news report (see Appendix), entitled Secret Chinese Concentration Camp Revealed. The story said

In Sujiatun District, Shenyang City, the CCP has established a secret concentration camp, where over 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners are detained, said Mr. R. The concentration camp has a crematorium to dispose of bodies. There are also many doctors on site. No detainees have managed to leave the concentration camp alive. Before cremation, the internal organs are all removed from the bodies and sold.

More reports appeared at the Falun Gong media in the following days. What follows is quoted from a report on Da Ji Yuan.

Three-quarters of the 6,000 arrested Falun Gong practationers have died, having their hearts, kidneys, retinas, and skins harvested and their bodies disposed of...Since 2001, the concentration camp has secretly detained thousands of Falun Gong practitioners. The hospital removed their kidneys, livers, and corneas. After the organ removal, the emptied corpses were sold as models to the Biological Plastic and Chemistry Factories that sprung like mushrooms because of the sufficient supply of dead bodies and others were disposed of right on the spots. Investigations show that the organs were taking from the arrested Falun Gong practitioners alive. Due to the exceptional brutality, many participating medical staffs suffered from serious psychological problems and there have been reports that some medical workers committed suicide because of the mental pressure...The organs from the Falun Gong practitioners have become the main supply of China's underground organ trade. (from New Witness Confirms Existence of Chinese Concentration Camp in Da Ji Yuan, March 17)

(4) After a careful study of the reports on Da Ji Yuan, I found the two witnesses are not reliable and most probably they had fabricated the story. I tried in vain to contact Zhang Erping, the spokesman of Falun Gong. I made called to his cell phone and asked him to call back and have a talk about the issue of Sujiatun, but he never replied to my call.

Meanwhile, I asked the CIC reporters in China to make an investigation on the Sujiatun allegation. Since March 12, the investigators searched around the whole District of Sujiatun. On March 17, they even managed to visit the two military camps located in Sujiatun. On March 27, they secretly visited the Liaoning Provincial Thrombosis Hospital of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine in Sujiatun. On March 29, they visited the Kangjiashan Prison at the neighborhood of Sujiatun. However, with all these first-hand investigations, they had not found anything that could be an evidence of the Falun Gong allegation of Sujiatun Concentration Camp. During and after their investigation, they sent back photos and written reports to me about their findings respectively on March 15, March 17, March 27, March 29, March 30 and April 4 (See the appendix)

(5) At the same time, Falun Gong launched its recessant propaganda on Da Ji Yuan (including its English version) and other media about the Sujiatun Concentration Camp. The Falun Gong backed radio and TV stations, the Voice of hope and the New Tang Dynasty TV, echoed with the clamor. The New Tang Dynasty TV interviewed me and borrowed from me some video tapes about organ transplant and I agreed. Many news media of the US and European countries as well as statesmen contacted me to ask me for my opinion on the Sujiatun story.

(6) On March 19, invited by Professor Nie Sen, representative of Falun Gong practitioners in DC area, I gave a speech in support of their withdrawal from the CCP campaign after the practitioners staged a demonstration along St. Patrick Street and the Divine Land Marching Band assembled before the Lincoln Memorial.

After my speech, I had a talk with Mrs Rong Yi who is in charge of Kan Zhong Guo (the Secret China News) about the cooperation between her website and the CIC's website Guancha.

At this assemblage, I first met Mrs. Wang Wenyi who called herself the manager of Da Ji Yuan's Public Relation Department. Her self-introduction indicated that 1) she graduated from a medical college in China and got her doctor's degree in US and recently moved from California to New York City to do medical research; 2) she had once denounced Chinese President Jiang Zemin for his persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in Malta where Jiang made a visit; and 3) when she was working in China she had been to the execution ground to help the surgeons to crop organs from executed prisoners.

As was mentioned above, my team and I were writing a report about the heart harvesting of the death row prisoners in China's Huaxi Hospital and were preparing for a Congress hearing about China's theft of prisoner organs, so I invited Mrs. Wang to give testimony at the scheduled hearing as a direct participant in organ harvest. Wang happily agreed and promised to email me her written testimony in a short time.

On March 22, I wrote a letter to some congressmen to express my opinion about the Sujiatun issue. The letter was sent to altogether twenty or so receivers, including some congressmen and journalists of some news media. The main points of the letter are as below 1) According to our investigation in China, the alleged concentration camp that lock up as many as 6000 people does not exist in Sujiatun District; 2) over the past two decades, the Chinese government did harvest organs from death row prisoners, but neither in theory or in practice it is impossible to conduct the operation to crop organs alive from as many as 4500 people; 3) the report that the CCP crops organs from the Falun Gong practitioners and exports them to Thailand and other countries" is totally unreliable. In the letter, I reiterated my unmistakable stance to fight against the communist regime's persecution of the Falun Gong practitioners and promised that I would continue to support Falun Gong and other organizations or individuals to seek for their freedom of faith. To avoid the possible misunderstanding that I take the same stand as the CCP, I asked the receivers to keep the letter confidential and it was not supposed to be spread outside, published or quoted in publication (See Appendix)

Up till now the letter has not been published or translated into Chinese.  

(8) On March 28 after the letter was sent out, the representatives of Falun Gong, including Mr. Tang Zhong (CEO of the New Tang Dynasty TV), Mrs. Guo Jun (Editor-in-chief of the Epoch Times), and Mrs. Wang Wenyi (manager of public relation of the Epoch Times) visited the China Information Center. Editors of the CIC Mr. Chen Kuide and Mrs. Liao Tienchi presented at the talk. I mainly expressed the following opinions in my talk

(a) I suggested the word concentration camp not be casually used in the report carried by Da Ji Yuan, because the word has its own exclusive meaning and a casual use of it may cause negative effects.

(b) Citing the example of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp of the Nazi Germany, I tried to convince them that the harvest of organs of 4500 people alive and then burn the corpses in the crematorium will be a unimaginably great event in world history, so it needs sufficient evidence, reliable witnesses and substantial investigation. If the report is written merely on the basis of one or two indirect witnesses, it will be taken as a kind of propaganda and propaganda, as all know, is a negative word in the West. Only in Nazi Germany, Stalinist Soviet Union and China there are such state organs as the Propaganda Department.

(c) If 4500 practitioners' organs are removed, then averagely 1500 each year and 120 each month will have their organs removed and then murdered. It is technically impossible and the actual environment of Sujiatun does not seem to allow such large scale operations.

(d) The alleged exportation of organs to Thailand is also nonsense. It is possible, and in fact true, for Thais and people of other countries to go to China to receive organs, but to export organs to other countries is both technically and legally impossible. I had been in Thailand to investigate the cases of Thais going to China to receive organs and to gather information about the official regulations of the patients going abroad to receive organs. A Thai who received organs abroad and the Chairman of the Royal Medical Association of Thai were once invited by me to give testimonies at a congress hearing. (It can be traced in the congress archive)

(e) The representatives of Falun Gong now admit that there is no sufficient evidence for the Sujiatun story, but they believe the Concentration Camp of Sujiatun does exist so their reports are authentic and they are trying to gather more evidences. Their reasoning goes like this the CCP regime is brutal in nature, so they will commit all sort of crime, and it follows there should not be any doubt about the Sujiatun story. In order to stop the on-going butchery (it is said there are still 2000 Falun Gong practitioners in the camp and their organs will soon be harvested), they decided to publicize the report to arouse the concern of the international community so that they may interfere and stop the communist killing.

In our talk, I asked if I can meet with the two witnesses. Mrs. Wang Wenyi said for their safety the witnesses' whereabouts is confidential and even she herself did not know where they are. She said she would try to arrange a meeting between the witnesses and me. But right after the talk at noon, I was told that the two witnesses, accompanied by Wang Wenyi and other Falun Gong representatives, were lobbying on the Capitol Hill and had met a couple of congressmen there.

(9) On March 31, Professor Nie Sen and Mrs. Amy suddenly rushed to the CIC office without any notice beforehand. Mrs. Liao Tienchi and Mr. Chen Kuide of CIC took part in the talk. Amy kept silent all time, while Mr. Nie Sen frankly told me that he learned I wrote a letter to the congress and then went on to make three statements

1) If you (Harry Wu) have not evidence and know little about facts, you'd better be neutral in attitude. 2) If so, your fame will not be ruined and you can go on with your own work. We Falun Gong practitioners have always been respectful to you. 3) Your letter is in essence helping the CCP, so stop doing this right now.

Hearing this, I said to Nie Sen, You are threatening me.

No, this is by no means threatening, said Nie.

I asked, Then do you mean that you are persuading me or giving me kind advice Why do you think you have the right to talk to me in that manner

I have read your letter to the congress, said he.

I said, My letter is private and confidential, directly addressed to the congressmen. As far as I know, you did not bring the two witnesses to the congress to lobby, then how did you get the chance to read the letter

Nie did not reply. So I continued, Since you did not see the letter, it must be someone else who read it and then told you. I guess your organization had held a meeting and they sent you here to warn me, right

Again Nie made no reply.

Seeing this, I said, Now you can leave, please.

So Nie and that lady left our office.

(10) After Nie's visit, I called Zhang Erping again. And this time, he answered and said he would come to visit me the next Monday.

On the morning of April 3, Mr. Zhang Erping and Mrs. Wang Wenyi came to the CIC's office to visit me. Editors of CIC Mr. Chen Kuide and Mrs. Liao Tienchi presented at the talk.

Zhang Erping said, We very much respect you and you have your right of freedom of speech. But what you said in your letter is not right. You are in fact helping the CCP and you deeply hurt our feelings. You know, many Falun Gong practitioners came to DC to stage a protest before the White House. When they learned what you wrote, they were full of indignation.

Have you really read what I wrote to the congress I asked. But Zhang did not answer me.

I went on, The letter was in English and it was sent to twenty or so receivers. It is clearly marked "Confidential. Just for reference. No disseminating or quoting in publication." So I wonder how the ordinary Falun Gong practitioners know this. You must have known that someone sent Nie Sen to warn me last time and it seems your organization has made systematic arrangement. Again, Zhang did not answer.

I felt very disappointed. Thought Zhang Erping is very gentleman-like and has a good personal relation with me, he had by then expressed Falun Gong's resentment against me. So it seems it will not be long when Falun Gong takes hostile action against me. Of course, they may tell the outsiders that it was me who first turned antagonistic against them.

Right that evening, I called Zhang Erping again to further express my opinion. The phone talk lasted for more than one hour but still we could not convince each other. At last I tried to change an angle for them to view this issue. I said, Please don't consider me, you simply answer me the following two questions. First, consider whether the Sujiatun story has given the Falun Gong credit or discredit. Second, consider whether the Falun Gong campaign is going up since 1999 or going down. You needn't answer me, because whichever answers you have, it has little to do with me. I only hope as a leader of Falun Gong you will have a clear thinking over this issue.

(11) On April 6, Falun Gong wrote a letter to US Congress, calling for an investigation of the Sujiatun camp.

(12)On April 8, Falun Gong website Renmin Bao (People's Paper) published two articles, one entitled The Top Hierarchy of the Chinese State Security in Chaos and the other Harry Wu, the Butcher. The two articles directly said that I hindered the investigation of the Sujiatun Concentration Camp so I am the butcher and the spy of the Chinese State Security Bureau. My photos are also posted with these articles.

Without any comment, I forward the two articles to Zhang Erping right that day. It is said that the next day the article were removed from the website. It is unknown whether the editors got the order from Zhang or because of other reasons. Some Falun Gong representatives explained to me that the articles which were written by some individuals do not represent the official stand of Falun Gong.

(13) According to the reports of Reuters and AFP on April 12, China's State Council held a press conference on April 11. At the conference officials from the Sujiatun District of Shenyang and authorities of the Thrombosis Hospital in Sujiatun gave a speech against the accusation of Falun Gong and denied the detention of great numbers of Falun Gong practitioners there.

(14) On April 13, Falun Gong made a statement, saying the more we make the investigation, the more we believe the story is true...In face of such bloody killings, we hope the international society will not stand by to watch or question the authenticity of the story critically. The world cannot allow the tragedy to develop while waiting without doing anything. Even if there is 1% possibility, the event itself deserves our meticulous handling and full speed investigation.

(15) On April 14, the US State Department issued a report based on the two investigations made by US embassy in Beijing and US Consulate in Shengyang. The report said In these visits the officers were allowed to tour the entire facility and grounds and found no evidence that the site is being used for any function other than as a normal public hospital.

(16) On April 16 Falun Gong website Ren Min Bao published two articles, one entitled AFP and AP Act in Collusion with the Communist Xinhua News Agency, the other "Questioning Mr. Bush on Easter". The articles said, Three weeks after the Sujiatun Concentration Camp came to light when all evidences there have been removed, the spokesman Qin Gang of China's Foreign Relation Ministry invited international media to make investigation. Over a month later on April 14, the spokesman of the US Department of State Sean McCormack said the US investigation (this is directed and arranged by the CCP) had found no evidence that the hospital is being used for any function other than as a normal public hospital. The news reports carried by AP and AFP are almost the same as the authorized reports by the Xinhua News Agency. The US government elites turn a blind eye to the routine faking-up of the CCP and merely after a short walk in Sujiatun they jumped to the conclusion that there is nothing 'abnormal' with the hospital.  

(17) On April 16, a certain congressman assistant called to tell me that the Falun Gong practitioners were very dissatisfied with me, because I openly expressed my opposition against the Falun Gong representatives to present at the scheduled hearing on April 19.

He said, Someone of the Congress said that Falun Gong practitioners cannot present at the hearing without the consent of Harry Wu.

This is not true, I said, I never told anyone, including staff of the Congress that Falun Gong cannot present at the hearing.

The assistant answered, Zhang Erping said he heard this from a certain congress staff.

I answered, I'd like to meet with Zhang Erping and that congress staff so we can make this clear.

I don't have the right to prevent others from presenting at the meeting. I don't know why Zhang and that congress staff should say so. Since you are working on the Capitol Hill, you can ask them for evidence.

The assistant said, If you will, I can arrange the two Falun Gong witnesses to meet you. This may be helpful to you.

I answered, "I am glad to see them, but this has nothing to do with the congress hearing. They are two different things. I want to make clear why Zhang Erping said that I tried to keep Falun Gong away from the hearing."

The assistant told me to wait a while and it turned out that Zhang Erping was right in his office behind the door. Later he told me, Please come to my office at 11 tomorrow morning.

The next day, I went to the Capitol Hill with my assistant. In the congressmen's office (the Congress is in reces so the office is vacant), I met with the assistant and Zhang Erping, but the alleged witnesses did not appear.

I told them I was coming to meet with the witnesses, if they could not come, I'd leave right away. I went on to say if they meant to talk about the hearing, I'd again make the statement -- right before Zhang Erping -- that I have no right to agree or disagree with anyone, individuals or organizations, to present or not to present at the hearing. Furthermore, I have no intention to interfere into the affairs of the Congress.

The assistant said he'd like me make the arrangement for Falun Gong representative to be present at the hearing. Again I told him I do not have the right. He said he wanted to have an in-depth exchange of views with me, so I told him to ask Zhang Erping to leave first.

After that, I told the assistant my stand and point of view on the Sujiatun issue (as is listed above from Points 1 to 16), and showed him some photos of Sujiatun which our investigators in China had taken (He is the first one out of our team to see these photos). Seeing this, the assistant said he did not know anything about this and told me it was he who made a copy of my letter to Congress on March 22 and gave it to Zhang Erping. He made a formal apologize to me for this is against the work ethics of the Congress and also a violation of my right of privacy. For over a decade, I have been in friendly terms with this assistant. Though I felt discontented with what he did, I know he is quite a nice guy. I guess on one hand he just behaved too radically on the Sujiatun issue and on the other hand he did not know enough about the facts. So I spent almost an hour to tell him what I know and my own point of views on this issue. He, too, expressed his thoughts and repeatedly apologized and asked for my excuse.

(18) On April 17 Falun Gong spokesman Zhang Erping stated, The investigation under the control of the CCP is meaningless. He said, Falun Gong has established the 'Committee to Investigate Persecution of Falun Gong' and we welcome the US government to join this independent organization.

(19) On May 6, I went to Frankfurt in Germany to attend a human rights conference, where I met a certain Mr. Wu who is a leader of Falun Gong in Germany. We had been in friendly terms over the past years but this time he even refused to say hi to me. This made me very surprised.

That Mr. Wu talked about the organ harvesting in Sujiatun at the conference. His remark was immediately followed by direct questions from four Germans. To avoid confrontation in public I asked for leave and went out.

Two senior Falun Gong leaders of Sweden and Belgium respectively held a long talk with me. They did not show that they were angry with me, but they said they were heart-broken. They said they had learned about the letter I wrote on March 22 and they just felt just queer. I told them what I know about the Sujiatun allegation and my point of view on this issue (see Points 1 to 16 as listed above). They felt sorry for me because the articles carried by Ren Min Bao labeled me as butcher.

(20) Many friends of mine in mainland China showed great concern when they learned that Falun Gong had called me butcher and super-class spy of the CCP.

(21) Many Chinese websites outside of China republished the Falun Gong articles which were then followed by many irresponsible speculations.

(22) According to the information from different sources, one of the reasons that Falun Gong called me a super spy of the CCP is that Mrs. Gao Zhan had once worked in CIC. Gao has one similarity with me, i.e. she too was once arrested by the Chinese government, sentenced and then released. This is basis on which Falun Gong makes their deduction.

(23) On May 20 and 21, two senior politicians of Canada who declared to establish an international organization to make investigation into the issue of Sujiatun came to DC to visit me. They too had in hand the letter I wrote to the Congress on March 22 (where did they get it).

We had been acquaintances for many years and they respect me. They told me they could not understand why I oppose the Sujiatun accusation. I told them my view and understanding of this issue (see Points 1 to 16 as listed above).

They asked me if I had ever seen the witnesses. I said no. They seemed surprised and promised me they would arrange the witnesses to see me. The next day they told me they were unable to do so, because the two witnesses refused to see me on account of my letter to the Congress which hinted the allegation is not true. I told the two Canadians I had demanded to see the witnesses before I wrote the letter to Congress, but they refused me.

To this point, our talk went into a dead lane. They seemed at a loss. Then they suddenly wrote two words Gao Zhan on a piece of paper and asked me, Do you know this person I replied, Yes, she is now in US prison and is waiting to be deported. Then I asked them, Why do you suddenly ask about Gao Zhan when we are talking about Sujiatun The two Canadians only laughed without reply.

(China Information Center, July 18, 2006)

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