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The Sujiatun Thrombosis Hospital is a public hospital located in the Sujiatun district of Shenyang, in northeast China. It attracted worldwide attention in March 2006 when rumors surfaced that it was the location of a concentration camp where Falun Gong practitioners had their organs forcibly removed. The government of the People's Republic of China denied the allegations, and investigations by the United States Department of State and human rights activist Harry Wu did not find evidence to support them; some writers, and the Falun Gong-affiliated journal The Epoch Times, regard the issue unresolved.

Organ harvesting allegations

In March 2006, an unidentified Chinese journalist claimed that he had discovered a secret underground prison beneath the hospital, where as many as 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners were being held for organ harvesting. Starting on March 9, this and another account were repeatedly reported in the Falun Gong affiliated Epoch Times. Accounts also surfaced from an unidentified woman claiming to be the wife of a Sujiatun doctor who told the Epoch Times that her husband had been forced to extract organs from live detainees.

Investigations

The reports were quickly investigated and corroborated by Falun Gong-affiliated organizations such as the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) Clearwisdom.net, and the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (which, citing the sensitive nature of the investigation, did not disclose its sources); and denied by the Chinese government, its embassies, and Sujiatun hospital staff and district officials.

Independent reports by unaffiliated organizations generally agreed that there was no evidence of live organ harvesting at Sujiatun. The United States Department of State dismissed claims of there being a "concentration camp" at Sujiatun, According to a report by the United States Congressional Research Service, U.S. officials investigated the facility twice and found no evidence that it was being used for organ harvesting or detaining prisoners. Amnesty International stated that the claims could be neither confirmed nor denied. As the hospital is a joint venture with a company associated with the Malaysian government, Malay officials also visited the clinic and found it to be a hospital, not a concentration camp.

Noted Chinese dissident Harry Wu, known vocal critic of the Chinese government and its human rights record, also expressed doubts about the existence of a concentration camp at Sujiatun, stating that the evidence was insubstantial, the supposed eyewitness accounts inconsistent, the facilities at Sujiatun not amenable to such a large-scale operation, and the anonymous witnesses not credible. Wu emphasized that his dismissal of reports about Sujiatun did not mean he was "cooperating with Beijing," and rather than more attention should be paid to the harvesting of organs from already-executed prisoners, which he believes has been conclusively proven and is more prevalent than the alleged live harvesting. Wu's criticism of the allegation was met with anger by several Falun Gong advocacy groups.

In spite of denials by the officials and independent investigations, some Falun Gong-affiliated organizations have continued to publish reports about human rights abuses in Sujiatun; over a year after investigation by Wu and by the United States Department of State. For example, the Epoch Times reported having discovered one of the doctors involved in the organ harvesting. The CIPFG theorized that after Jin's report about organ harvesting at Sujiatun first surfaced, the government would have transferred all the detainees and destroyed all evidence of the concentration camp.

In 2007, Canadian journalist Glen McGregor was invited by the Chinese Medical Association, a Chinese non-governmental organization, to visit the hospital at Sujiatun. McGregor echoed Wu's analysis—namely, that the hospital was too small and too public to have been involved in large-scale organ harvesting.

Ethan Gutmann, adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, writing in the Weekly Standard, says that "three weeks is a long time by Chinese construction standards," referring to the timeline from when the story broke to when the US State Department officials conducted their more detailed investigation. Gutmann has raised several shortcomings of their investigations such as the State Department officers would have needed an architect to make sure that the facility toured is unaltered; should have collected forensic samples, sift through ashes, interview hospital personnel privately off-site, reject the company of CCP handlers and hospital operatives; because otherwise the findings are hardly relevant as a real investigation.

Since the Sujiatun controversy subsided, new evidence supporting the allegations of organ harvesting has arisen, and in November 2008, the United Nations Committee Against Torture made a strong statement on the matter. They cited Nowak's note that an increase in organ transplant operations coincides with “the beginning of the persecution of ” and asked for "a full explanation of the source of organ transplants." The Committee stated that it is concerned with the information that Falun Gong practitioners "have been extensively subjected to torture and ill-treatment in prisons and that some of them have been used for organ transplants." They called for the state to immediately conduct or commission an independent investigation of the claims of organ harvesting, and take measures to ensure that those responsible for such abuses are prosecuted and punished.

References

1. Gertz, Bill (24 March 2006). "China harvesting inmates' organs, journalist says". Washington Times. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
2. ^ Callick, Rowan (14 August 2006). "Chinese dissident doubts organ harvest claim". The Australian. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
3. Ji Da (17 March 2006). "New Witness Confirms Existence of Chinese Concentration Camp, Says Organs Removed from Live Victims". The Epoch Times. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
4. Nordlinger, Jay (30 March 2006). "A Place Called Sujiatun". National Review. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
5. ^ "Summary: Organ Harvesting from Living Falun Gong Prisoners". Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong. 1 May 2006. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
6. "Witness Continues to Reveal the Horrors of Organ Removal from Live Falun Gong Practitioners Inside the Sujiatun Concentration Camp". Clearwisdom.net. 21 March 2006. Retrieved 2008-10-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
7. "An Investigation into Sujiatun Death Camp (Part I)". World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong. 19 March 2006. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
8. "Truth about the So-called "Sujiatun Concentration Camp"". Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Canada. 18 April 2006. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
9. "Sujiatun 'Concentration Camp' Sheer Lie". Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Republic of Bulgaria. 11 August 2006. Retrieved 2008-10-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
10. "U.S. Finds No Evidence of Alleged Concentration Camp in China Repression of Falun Gong". Washington File. 16 April 2006. Retrieved 2008-10-21. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
11. ^ Lum, Thomas (11 August 2006). "China and Falun Gong" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. p. 10. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
12. Wu, Harry (8 June 2006). "Statement of Harry Wu about Sujiatun issue". Retrieved 2008-10-21. {{cite web}}: Text "Observechina.net" ignored (help)
13. Tong Xin and Li Jia (7 June 2007). "Organ Harvesting Surgeon Identified". The Epoch Times. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
14. "Live Organ Extraction Continues while the Evidence Is Transferred". The Epoch Times. 29 April 2006.
15. McGregor, Glen (24 November 2007). "Inside China's 'crematorium'". Ottawa Citizen. p. 4. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
16. Ethan Gutmann, "Why Wang Wenyi Was Shouting,", Weekly Standard, 05/08/2006, Volume 011, Issue 32
17. United Nations Committee Against Torture, CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES UNDER ARTICLE 19 OF THE CONVENTION: Concluding observations of the Committee against Torture, Forty-first session, Geneva, 3-21 November 2008

• Falun Gong
• Hospitals in China