Recently, Falun Gong practitioners have been writing to the MP of the Esson area and the Mayor of Yerres city, Mr. Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, to tell them about the CCP's savage persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Subsequently, Mr. Dupont-Aignan wrote a letter to the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, appealing to the French authorities to take immediate action to stop these crimes. Both letters are reproduced here.

"This kind of thing must be stopped. What I mean is that the International Red Cross should be allowed to investigate the true situation in there, just as the situation happened in the Gulag concentration camps and Nazi concentration camps in those years. It is most important that the international societies investigate what has really happened there, rather than merely base the situation on this report. It counts for much, so the international societies should exert pressure on the CCP."

"After reading your letter, as well as the testimonies stated in it and description of the oppression and torture of people believing in Falun Gong, I strongly condemn such practises by the government authorities in China and I join, in this way, other pro-democracy oriented people and appeal to the highest government representatives in China to stop the torture and killing of innocent people."

"The Chinese government is now brutally violating human rights. According to reports on the internet, the Vice-Minister of the Public Security, Liu Jin, said: “Eliminate Falun Gong before the Olympic Games in 2008.” According to the reports, the Chinese regime systematically killed Falun Gong practitioners in the secret Sujiatun concentration camp, and no one ever left the facility alive. Some Falun Gong practitioners were murdered and their organs were removed. Even some live practitioners’ organs were taken out because it is more valuable than from dead bodies."

"Last week, more and more reports came out about the fact that in China prison camps are built for Falun Gong practitioners. In a certain camp it is said there are more then six thousand Falun Gong practitioners and yet nobody has come out alive. According to certain messages the camp in Shenyang contains a crematorium and an unusually large number of doctors are working there. The reason for this would be the fact that there are practices whereby prisoners are killed for their organs which are being sold for profit. The messages are so shocking that they seem unbelievable. Meanwhile different witnesses appeared who confirm those reports and also according to journalistic and scientific sources those prison camps do actually exist."

The second steering committee meeting of the Council of Europe in 2006 was held in Strasbourg from April 10th to 13th. 11 representatives of the COE raised a motion to ask for a hearing on the case which was recently exposed to the public regarding the CCP crimes of organ-harvesting from live Falun Gong practitioners.

Mr. Bernard Piras, a member of the French parliament, wrote a letter to the French Foreign Minister on 1st March 2006 regarding the inhumane torture and persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. French Member of Parliament Mr. Bernard Piras urged the French Foreign Minister to pay attention to human rights violations happening in China, in particular the cruel practice of organ removal from living people, which violates basic human rights.

"I paid a high degree of attention to the report by the Washington Post you sent me about 6,000 people detained in a secret concentration camp in northern China and the removal of organs which were sold for profit. This is an incident that the human rights subcommittee of the European Council's foreign relations committee definitely must conduct an investigation into."

"We feel very painful whenever we hear that those who are asking for freedom of belief and speech as stated in the International Human Rights Convention are being persecuted. We are urgently requesting the international community to together call for the end of crimes against humanity and take action to rescue the 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners who are still locked up in the Concentration Camp. The free and civilized world cannot keep silent and remain completely indifferent to these horrible incidents happening right now."

An MP in Southern Germany wrote: "The realization of global basic human rights is an important humane foundation of German foreign trade. Improving human rights and setting up human rights organizations is very important to the German government. Thus, the German government pays a great deal of attention to the human rights situation in China. The incident you mentioned in the letter is intolerable and should be subject to the most severe punishment."

On April 3rd 2006, Falun Gong practitioners from countries all over Europe held a rally at the headquarters of the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva, strongly condemning the crimes of the CCP, who barbarously persecuted Falun Gong practitioners by removing their organs and then burning their bodies to eliminate the evidence.

“The UK Government is concerned about the practice of organ harvesting from prisoners subject to the death penalty in China and reports of illegal trafficking of organs. We understand that some 600,000 people in China each year require organ transplants and that there is a great shortage of organs due to social taboos about transplants. We also understand that the Chinese Government has acknowledged the practice of organ harvesting from these prisoners and the trade in their organs.”

"The German Government has long before known the improper measures the Chinese Communist Party has taken against Falun Gong and the infringing of their most basic human rights. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany has strongly condemned the way of taking the persecution of Falun Gong as the norm in China. During bilateral talks, representatives of the German Government have consulted with the Chinese leaders about human rights many times and tried hard to look for a scheme of settling the focus cases to which the public pay attention."

The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) has confirmed in their investigations that the Sujiatun District Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital in Shenyang City, also known as the Liaoning Province Thrombosis Treatment Centre of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine (the Thrombosis Hospital for short, below) had set up an unlawful crematorium to burn the bodies and destroy evidence. The existence of a huge live human organ bank in the Shenyang City area has been verified. The live harvesting of organs for transplants from unlawfully detained Falun Gong practitioners were found in not only at the Sujiatun area but also at many other places throughout Mainland China.

"Without prejudice to the outcome of the above enquiries, Ireland and the EU remain concerned about the situation of Falun Gong practitioners in China and have raised our concerns with the Chinese Government on many occasions. Human rights issues are a constant and important point of dialogue with the Chinese Authorities at both bilateral and European Union level. In our bilateral exchanges, human rights concerns were raised most recently with the Chinese Government during Minister of State Lenihan’s visit to China for St. Patrick’s Day earlier this month."

"What is true of the reports that talk about a secret concentration camp, called Sujiatun, located in the Chinese city of Shenyang, Liaoning province, in which thousands of Falun Gong adherents are systematically being tortured, killed and removed of their organs? Is the Dutch Government willing, potentially in the form of an international alliance, to plea for an independent investigation? Is the Dutch Government willing, potentially in the form of an international alliance, to file a request with the Chinese authorities to have independent observers gain access to the above-mentioned camp as soon as possible?"

Mr. Soren Espersen wrote in the letter: “I would like to ask, if the Minister would ask the Chinese regime to allow an observer from the Red Cross or the UN to investigate the Sujiatun Concentration Camp in Shenyang City, Liaoning province; if the Minister would still continue to pressurise the Chinese regime in order to make it open its concentration camps and prisons so that the Red Cross or UN representatives could proceed with their investigation?”

"News has emanated from China in recent days that the CCP is selling the body organs of Falun Gong practitioners killed in one of its detention centres, the Sujiatun Concentration Camp in Northern China, to foreign buyers. The establishment of this concentration camp is severe enough in the government’s 7-year campaign to suppress and crush those who exercise their democratic right to freedom of belief and expression by practising Falun Gong, but for the CCP to deal in the sale of their organs both in China and abroad shows a callousness and brutality beyond anything we have seen before."

"The concentration camp is located in the Sujiatun District of Shenyang City and, therefore, identified as the Sujiatun concentration camp. The camp is encircled by a wall three meters in height. On top of the wall are electrified barbed-wire meshes. The camp is intensively guarded and kept confidential. Imprisoned in the camp are Falun Gong practitioners kidnapped from northeastern and central China ... Are the Belgian authorities aware of the systematic persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in China?

"We became a non-country in the Soviet Union, and we did not have any true history books, as they consisted of only 10 pages. Communist regimes and crimes by communist criminals took away our conscience in the form of our religion. Many things were forbidden, as I know from personal experience. The communists took away our minds. Many branches of art and of science were forbidden, so they took away our humanity. As a result, sometimes we cannot assess or condemn the things that happened."

Mr Schreiner praised the report as clear and courageous. Although Nazism and its followers have been brought to trial and condemned, communist perpetrators of human rights abuses have not. Communist crimes are as bad as those of Nazism. Communism has been responsible for the extermination of millions of innocent people, but little mention has been made of that in school history syllabuses. Mr Schreiner said politicians have been prudent in denouncing communism while communist regimes still exist. They need to move from their polite silence and etiquette on communism.

Bulgaria was not spared the excesses of the totalitarian communist regime. Between 1984 and 1989, Bulgarians had been imprisoned without trial in prison camps because they had been against the regime or because they had not been sympathetic to communism. Approximately 200,000 people had been imprisoned without trial, of whom 30,000 had been killed. In addition, thousands had “disappeared”. Between the years 1984 and 1989, there had been many flagrant abuses of human rights through violence, assassinations and incarceration in camps.

According to our initial investigation, there truly exists a large "organ market" in Sujiatun, Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, China. It is a systematic procedural practice, which includes building the death camp, detaining the "suppliers" (living Falun Gong practitioners), matching Falun Gong practitioners' organs with people who need them, surgically removing the organs, eliminating the victims' bodies and setting up the hospitals that use these stolen organs. Without any legal procedures, Falun Gong practitioners are taken to the Sujiatun death camp without anyone's knowledge. They are in complete isolation. Their bodies are cremated after their organs are harvested.

"We wish to register our serious concern at the news emanating from the Sujiatun Concentration Camp involving the severe persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and the subsequent sale of their body organs after they have died in custody. The establishment of the concentration camp is the latest in a long line of brutal activities by the CCP to suppress the Falun Gong movement in its constitutional right to freedom of belief and expression since the practice of Falun Gong was banned by the authorities in July 1999. The existence of the concentration camp would be terrible enough in itself, but for the CCP to deal in the sale of human organs represents a sinister new direction to the persecution."

"I asked to speak to express my support for the draft resolution and to condemn the crimes of totalitarian communism – and I do that, despite the fact that I was a member of the Communist Party of Estonia. It is not now important why that was the case, but I am not proud of it today, not least because it severely hurt the feelings of my parents, who suffered under the regime. I believe that I am the sternest judge here. I hope that the efforts that I have made to terminate the regime and to build up democracy in Estonia have mitigated the harm that I did by being a member of the Communist Party."

"It is shocking to hear the allegation that a secret concentration camp in Sujiatun, Shenyang, China, has detained over 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners, and it has been engaged in the harvesting of human organs from those imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners ... The international community and the UK government should investigate these allegations and speak up loudly to condemn such brutality rather than keep quiet for commercial or political gains. This matter should be discussed at the forthcoming meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission."

Two months ago, I was a keynote speaker at a conference on human rights in North Korea, which was held in Seoul. What I heard at that conference and what I have learned from a documentary is so terrifying that it is hard for a normal human being to believe. This debate reminds me how evil communist regimes can be and how the absence of international condemnation of the massive human rights violations and deaths of many millions of individuals regrettably gave a chance to many dictators in the 21st century to feel untouchable by the law. It is difficult to discuss communism without emotion. It is a question not only of politics, but of humanity.

Justice must be accessible for everyone regardless of national, religious, political or ideological background. Victims of communist terror must obtain moral and material satisfaction. Selective justice and the feeling of injustice which results from it can be dangerous for a democracy, especially a society in transition, and it can slow down the democratic process. Judicial bodies must process all communist crimes and violations of human rights to return dignity and justice to victims of communist regimes.

The statement said that according to informants and initial verification, the Chinese Communist Party regime set up a secret concentration camp in the Sujiatun district of Shenyang city. The camp is suspected to specialise in detaining and killing practitioners to harvest their bodily organs for profit. The camp has a crematory and corpses are cremated at the camp. Reportedly, several thousand practitioners have been transferred to the camp from other regions. They are being detained in the camp and face slaughter at any time so their organs can be harvested for profit.

Mr Legendre said that the Council of Europe denounced crimes against liberty, the world over, part-session after part-session. Its stated mission is to maintain human rights. How could the Assembly not condemn crimes of communists when it had condemned fascists and Nazis? It is essential to condemn these totalitarian communist regimes. It is important to remember the policies the Communist Party had followed in the terrible 20th century, doing away with elections and imprisoning and executing citizens. The Council of Europe could not remain indifferent to those actions.

Over 30 million people were sent from Moldova to prison in Siberia, many of whom had committed no crime other than to be Christian. Mr Diacov had been born in Siberia in those circumstances and had had to explain many times why he was born there and why members of his family had lived, died and been buried there. He had told the committee that the Assembly was looking at the matter rather late in the day. There must be a full and proper condemnation of the crimes of communist regimes. It was necessary to agree the report to ensure that future generations did not suffer in the same way.

When Ukrainians learned of this debate at the Council of Europe, they asked their delegation to be brave enough to speak out and condemn the communist regime. They were children of the victims of the red terror, which reigned in Ukraine for more than 70 years. Those who fought against the regime were arrested. Representatives of the regime used the KGB to draw up lists of “enemies of the people”. The communist regime in Ukraine committed the most terrible crime of the 20th century. It created an artificial famine, causing the death by starvation of much of the population. Some 30% of those who died were children.

It was said in a letter from MP Alois Karl on February 24th, “I personally think that it is no doubt to protect general human rights. Moreover, I think Germany has a responsibility to protect human rights.” He suggested Falun Gong practitioners to list the details of the persecution. “According to my experiences, the detailed personal cases are extremely important. Do not underestimate the efforts of providing detailed description of every persecution instance. The German government, I and my colleagues would talk to those representatives of related countries. If it’s necessary, we could give direct help to the victims. ”

"I do not understand why people on the left do not realise that we are talking about not ideology and belief but the most terrible crimes committed against human beings in our continent. I am worried that this debate could be used for various domestic political purposes. There is no problem in Denmark or the Netherlands – nor, fortunately, in Hungary as we do not have communists anymore – but there could be a problem in other countries. I hope that the Assembly will unite in condemning the criminal acts of communism."

Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group (FGHRWG) recently published the experiences of several practitioners who were unlawfully detained in labour camps of the Chinese Communist Party. In the electronic report, practitioner Wang Bin and Chen Ying's stories were highlighted. The report received wide feedback from all over Europe. Reprinted in this article are some of the comments made by the readers to the FGHRWG Web site.

"The inheritance of communist occupation is vivid in my country, as it is in any country where the communists ruled. Mr Lukashenko may not be a clear-cut communist, but he is the result of a communist regime. It has already been said that communists still rule in several countries where they continue to prosecute individuals and kill people because of their beliefs. Recently, members of the Ukrainian delegation cried when it was announced that an international document would be prepared to recognise the genocide of the 1930s. It is important that moral responsibility is taken for such crimes."

"Those crimes were inspired by ideology. A number of left-wing parties had not found the strength or motivation to condemn ex-communist regimes. The report would give a moral boost to researchers and non-governmental organisations investigating communist crimes. It could have the same effect as the introduction of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre had had on those investigating Nazi crimes. It was essential that the archives of the security services in communist countries were opened; otherwise, it would not be possible to understand the full extent of their crimes."

The hunger strike was initiated by the famous human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who is known for his untiring struggle for the persecuted in China. Most commentators today deny China’s claims that the human rights situation in China is improving—in reality it has become much worse in recent years. For a long time the world has stood passively by as Communist China has persecuted large sections of its population, like Falun Gong, Christians and Buddhists. Gao Zhisheng himself recently commented: “When the Nazis slaughtered the Jews, they were condemned by the world. But the Communist Party has killed more than eighty million people, thirteen times more than the number of Jews and the world says nothing.”

"I want to express my appreciation to the Assembly for its decision to call for an international debate on and condemnation of totalitarian communist regimes. We support the beginning of an international debate on the crimes that the communist regimes in central and eastern Europe committed in the past century. The crimes committed by totalitarian communist regimes must be investigated and those who perpetrated them must be brought to trial, as happened with the horrible crimes committed by the Nazis."

"There is a great chance that, for the first time ever, the crimes of totalitarian communist regimes will be officially condemned by a major international forum – the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe...Today is important not only for the history of the Council of Europe, but for the millions of people who either suffered or still suffer under cruel, totalitarian communist regimes. It is our duty to recognise their suffering and those people fully deserve our sympathy and understanding. If we adopt this document, we will be remembered as politicians who not only spoke about but truly served human rights and the rule of law."

"In the 1950s, people were killed in our country as well as other communist countries. In the 1980s, the terror was psychological. However, there can be no victims – hard or soft – without representatives of a regime and without murderers. There can be no representatives of a regime or murderers without servants of the system. That is why we are discussing the totalitarian crimes of communism after 15 years. Condemnation of Nazism was quick because it took only months for the world’s community to unify against it. There is a difference in the case of communism."

We can see the same effect today in communist China, where the regime is very tough against anyone with a different opinion. Falun Gong and certain religious denominations are very badly treated in China. We can see that the same thing will happen there, with many dissidents in opposition. That is good, because I could bet you €100 that the Chinese communist regime will be gone within five years. There are defecting diplomats; we saw the same thing in the Soviet Union. Many people are leaving the communist party; the same thing happened before the fall of the Soviet Union’s iron curtain.

Mr. Jiang Renzheng, his wife and two small children were deported from Würzburg to Beijing in March 2005. Following his deportation from Germany and only four weeks after his arrival in China, Mr Renzheng Jiang was sentenced without trial to three years of forced labour for practicing Falun Gong and thereby ‘endangering public security’. Jiang has subsequently been released but is under house arrest. He has now been granted asylum in Germany.

A resolution was passed by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly on January 25th 2006. The chairman of the Christian Democrats, the chairman of the political division of general affairs committee in the Council of Europe and a Belgian parliamentarian Mr. Luc Van den Grande underlined the significance of this resolution but concluded, "To pass this resolution is just a beginning."

We wish to bring to your attention the recent act of violence and burglary carried out against Falun Gong practitioner Dr Peter Li Yuan in the name of the Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party. This event appears to be part of a worldwide campaign by the Chinese authorities to intimidate and undermine the Falun Gong movement, the exportation of their own brand of persecution abroad, a persecution which has so far caused the deaths in custody of nearly 3,000 practitioners in China, while many more thousands languish in prisons and labour camps with little hope of release.

At the beginning of 2006, a practitioner Min Teng-Schwagerl received a reply letter from Parliament Member Mr. Hartmut Koschyk, who is also the executive chairman of a regional committee of the Christian-Social Union (CSU). In the letter, Mr. Koschyk delivers sincere wishes to Mrs. Teng-Schwagerl for great health and well-being in 2006. He also looks forward to their continuation of trust and good cooperation.

"We hope that the perpetrator of this attack will be brought to justice by the due course of the law of the land. He will of course be afforded a fair trial, all the evidence will be fully considered before any conviction. That is the way it should be. Contrast this with the way Falun Gong practitioners in China have been dealt with, tortured to death and locked away in prisons and labour camps with little chance of release, and certainly with no fair trial."

"The CDU is well aware of the predicament of Falun Gong practitioners in China. The Committee for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid of the CDU/CSU Party in parliament, which is directed by Hermann Gröhe, is in constant contact with Falun Gong practitioners. In addition to Hermann Gröhe, many other CDU politicians have continued to specifically mention the human rights violations that are still being perpetrated against Falun Gong practitioners in China within the Committee for Human Rights and Human Aid of the German Parliament. The CDU has a continued commitment to uphold human rights."

"We also have used the upcoming State Visit by the Chinese President as an opportunity to point to the perilous human rights situation in the PRC. We are deeply concerned about the high numbers of death sentences and persecutions in China, about the administrative detention system, the state sanctioned harassment of Christian communities that are not registered with the Chinese regime, about the situation in Tibet and the long sentences and detentions of Falun Gong adherents in slave labour camps."

"We have known the fact that the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners began in 1999. In order to suppress this cultivation way and its practitioners, the Chinese Communist Party has been changing its methods of persecution continuously, such as excruciating torture, sending them into exile, forcing them to do heavy work and spreading propaganda of hatred aimed at Falun Gong. We can not accept the action of violating human rights..."