On December 12, Members of the European Parliament voted for a resolution that condemns harvesting of organs from prisoners of conscience in China, the majority of whom are practitioners of Falun Gong.

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On December 12, Members of the European Parliament voted for a resolution that condemns harvesting of organs from prisoners of conscience in China, the majority of whom are practitioners of peaceful meditation Falun Gong. European Parliament members called for the Chinese government to stop this criminal practice immediately.

[Laima Liucija Andrikiene, Member of the European Parliament]:
"The resolution on organ harvesting in China has been adopted a few minutes ago. During the debate on this urgent resolution, I also expressed my opinion. I said that systematic and state-sanctioned organ harvesting in China, including political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong practitioners, is absolutely unacceptable, and should be ended immediately. I also think it's a shame. A great country like what China is, which a month ago was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council, cannot continue this lamentable human rights record. Finally, I said all prisoners of conscience, all political prisoners in China, including Falun Gong practitioners, who are suffering because of their religious belief, should be released immediately."

Bernd Posselt, a Member of the European Parliament from Germany and a board member of the International Society for Human Rights, called for transparency in China's human rights issues.

[Bernd Posselt, Member of the European Parliament]:
"I have the opinion that China is an in-transparent dictatorship, and we need transparency to know what is happening. This is the heart of our resolution, we want transparency, and human rights."

One of the authors of the resolution, Ria Oomen-Ruijten, a Member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands, expressed her deep concern over the organ harvesting practice from China's prisoners of conscience.

[Ria Oomen-Ruijten, Member of the European Parliament]:
"It must come to an end. It is well known over the world that China has more than 10,000 transplantations every year. We also saw the advertisement, if you want a new organ, they can take care of it in 2-3 weeks. That is completely against all the standards of the World Health Organization... We have deep concerns, and we want to express our deep concerns towards the Chinese authority, and to convince them that they should really stop this practice."

Falun Gong has been persecuted by the Chinese regime since 1999 because of its popularity. In 2006, it became known that thousands of practitioners who had been captured and placed in labour camps were subjected to forced organ harvesting. This is the first resolution adopted by the European Parliament to condemn this criminal practice.

NTD News, Strasbourg