A team of US officials has found no evidence in northern China to support claims by the Falun Gong spiritual group that thousands of its followers have been killed and their organs harvested in concentration camps, the US government said.
Despite such a finding, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters Friday that Washington has taken the Falun Gong's charges "seriously" and has urged the Chinese government to probe the claims.
The Falun Gong has alleged that as many as 75 percent of its 6,000 followers held in a state-run Chinese camp in the Sujiatun district of the northern city of Shenyang had been cremated after they were killed and their organs harvested and sold.
"Officers and staff from our embassy in Beijing and consulate in Shenyang have visited the area and the specific site mentioned in these reports on two separate occasions," McCormack 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."
"We have raised these reports with the Chinese government and urged it to investigate these allegations," the spokesman said, noting that the Chinese government has denied the Falun Gong's allegations.
McCormack added: "We remain concerned over China's repression of Falun Gong practitioners."
(AFP, 2006)
