David Kilgour: Jiang Zemin ‘Should Be the First to Be Indicted’

[Editor’s Note: Due to the importance of Jiang Zemin’s recently being sued for his crimes against humanity, especially Falun Gong practitioners, this article is being reproduced from Minghui.org]

By Minghui correspondent Ying Zi

(Minghui.org) David Kilgour, former Canadian diplomat, presented results of his investigations at the 2015 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Ottawa, Canada, on June 5. He highlighted the fact that Falun Gong practitioners are the main target of forced organ harvesting in China.

Mr. Kilgour said that as the person who launched the persecution of Falun Gong in China in 1999, Jiang Zemin should be taken before the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and “should be the first one to be indicted.”

“As a former prosecutor myself, it would be a prosecutor’s dream to take him to the International Criminal Court in the Hague,” he added. “And I am sure there are thousands of prosecutors around the world who would be delighted to do that. And probably many prosecutors in China would be delighted to do that..”

Mr. David Kilgour, former Canadian diplomat

Maria Cheung, Associate Professor in Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba, reached the same conclusion regarding forced organ harvesting, “With the volume of transplants in China, the extremely low donation rate, and short wait period, Falun Gong practitioners are being used as the big pool of the living organ donor pool, available on demand.”

According to Dr. Cheung, a chain of operations of the organ harvesting business exists in China: Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the prison system (including forced labor camps, black jails), hospitals (mainly military hospitals), and middle persons to connect clients.

Dr. Maria Cheung, Associate Professor at University of Manitoba

Mr. Kilgour and international human rights lawyer David Matas started investigating the matter in 2006, soon after news of forced organ harvesting broke. Their nine years of independent investigations concluded that forced organ harvesting is still happening in China. Mr. Kilgour presented a chilling picture of mass killings targeting Falun Gong practitioners: they are killed for their kidneys, livers, hearts, and corneas for profit in organ transplants.

Mr. Kilgour said that Jiang’s letter to the standing committee of the Politburo after the Falun Gong practitioners’ peaceful protest near the CCP headquarters on April 25, 1999, is a key piece of evidence implicating him as being responsible for starting the persecution. “That letter alone is enough to provide prima-facie case that he is guilty of this ongoing crime.”

“Military hospitals are heavily involved in organ transplantation. Many surgeries performed at military hospitals are also for transplant tourists. They’re not under control of the Ministry of Health. Military surgeons frequently also practice at a civilian hospital. Some military hospitals bragged on their websites that organ transplantation was their #1 revenue source,” said Dr. Cheung.

She stated that Jiang Zemin, former head of the CCP, personally launched the persecution in 1999, and planned to eradicate Falun Gong practitioners physically, mentally, and financially. Jiang and the CCP have targeted Falun Dafa practitioners over the past 15 years in ways that mimic genocide, according to Dr. Cheung.

She stressed the importance of helping from outside of China, “Being social scientists, we know that neutrality only means taking sides with the dominant power. In the Falun Gong case, the dominant power, being the CCP, has deployed a lot of resources to defame and fabricate disinformation about Falun Gong. Being neutral will only lead to indifference and perpetuate the genocide.”

“As a human being, my right was violated because any human has the right to live,” said Macy Demissie, a social science researcher from Quebec. She said that the presentations were very good in that it was not just theory.

The conference was held at the University of Ottawa from May 30 to June 5. It is the largest academic gathering in Canada and is attended by about 8,000 scholars, researchers, and policy makers each year.