PENA MORTE: CINA, MEDICO TESTIMONIA SU ESTRAZIONE ORGANI 

 WASHINGTON, 27 GIU - 

Una prima testimonianza diretta sull'asportazione di organi dai condannati a morte giustiziati in Cina: nella domanda di asilo politico negli Stati Uniti, un medico cinese ha descritto con agghiaccianti dettagli come avvengono i prelievi dai corpi dei fucilati.

    Wang Guoqui, 38 anni, un dermatologo specializzato nel trattamento degli ustionati, era giunto negli Usa alla fine di aprile con una gita organizzata a Disneyland e al Grand Canyon.

    Il 14 maggio, invece di prendere il volo di ritorno, ha deciso di rimanere negli Stati Uniti e si e' rivolto a Harry Wu, noto dissidente sino-americano che trascorse 19 anni in una prigione cinese per reati politici.

    Wu e' alla guida della Laogai Foundation, una fondazione senza scopo di lucro che si batte contro la raccolta di organi estratti dai condannati a morte cinesi.

    Nella domanda per la concessione dell'asilo, Wang racconta come ha estratto le cornee e prelevato la pelle da oltre 100 detenuti messi a morte, compreso uno che ''non era ancora deceduto al momento dell''intervento' ''. Wang racconta, inoltre, l'asportazione di organi vitali da parte di altri medici dell'Ospedale per il quale lavorava, il Tianjin Paramilitary Police General Brigade Hospital, che poi vendeva gli organi a prezzi salatisimi.

    Secondo quanto raccontato da Wang, l'ospedale della polizia pagava 37 dollari alle guardie carcerarie per ogni segnalazione di esecuzione. Il boia era particolarmente attivo, con esecuzioni collettive, intorno al capodanno cinese e durante le campagne anti-crimine delle amminstrazioni locali.

    Gli organi prelevati erano poi venduti a pazienti ricchi. Un rene poteva fruttare oltre 15.000 dollari.

    Ogni anno la Cina esegue piu' condanne a morte di qualsiasi altro paese nel mondo. Secondo la fondazione Laogai, nel 1998 ci furono 1.769 esecuzioni e 3.167 trapianti di reni.

June 28 

  China Denies Doctor's Testimony to US  

BEIJING  - Beijing said Thursday that a Chinese doctor was lying when he told Congress about the harvesting of organs from executed prisoners in China.

   Adding weight to widespread reports of involuntary organ donations in China, burn doctor Wang Guoqi told a U.S. House International Relations Committee panel Wednesday that he removed skin from nearly 100 executed prisoners for transplant.

   Wang, who is seeking asylum in the United States, told the human rights panel that doctors took the kidneys from a prisoner who was still breathing after being shot in a 1995 execution in northern China.

   ``Any clear-sighted person can see that this is a vicious slander against China,'' said Chinese Foreign Ministry (news - web sites) spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue. I believe for personal purposes, they have gone so far as to create those sensational lies.

   ``With regard to the trade in human organs, China strictly prohibits that. The major source of human organs comes from voluntary donations from Chinese citizens,'' she said.

   Chinese officials say organs are transplanted from executed prisoners only if they and their family consent.

   But human rights campaigners have claimed that prisoners' executions are sometimes scheduled for transplant recipients who pay for involuntarily harvested organs. Activist Harry Wu, imprisoned by China for 19 years, said rich foreign transplant recipients may pay more than $15,000 apiece.

   Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, head of the congressional panel that held the hearing, said she wants to ensure that the United States does not become an accomplice ``in promoting this deplorable practice.''   She has sponsored a bill to bar Chinese physicians from coming to the United States for training in organ or tissue transplants.  

  July 4 

  China Strikes Back at Organ-Harvesting Allegations

By Jeremy Page   BEIJING  - China said on Wednesday a doctor who told the U.S. Congress he harvested organs from executed Chinese prisoners had cheated patients, lied about his qualifications and fabricated his story to seek political asylum.

   Chinese officials presented what they said was evidence disproving Wang Guoqi's testimony that doctors extracted organs from inmates immediately after execution, sometimes before they were clinically dead, to sell to foreign transplant patients.

   But the officials declined to answer questions about how many prisoners voluntarily donated organs, which hospitals supervised organ removals in such cases or why relatives of the executed were often not allowed to see corpses before they were cremated.

   Reports of organ-harvesting in China have surfaced several times in the past decade, but Wang's allegations came at a particularly sensitive time as Beijing polishes its image for a July 13 vote on its bid to host the 2008 Olympics.

   Wang, 38, told the House of Representatives subcommittee on human rights last week he had removed the skin and corneas from the corpses of more than 100 executed prisoners, including some victims of ``intentionally botched'' executions.

   Wang, who is seeking asylum in the United States after leaving China a year ago, said he worked as a burns specialist at the Paramilitary Police Tianjin General Division Hospital.

   HOSPITAL DENIES TRANSPLANTS   But the hospital's deputy chief Tian Fuming told a news conference arranged by the State Council, China's cabinet, that Wang was only a low-level doctor in a women and childcare center.

   ``As a medical worker in an elementary professional position, Wang Guoqi could only carry out ordinary burns treatment and did not have the skills or the power to take part in human organ transplant operations,'' he said.

   ``Wang Guoqi's fabrication of his academic history is nothing but an attempt to give his lies some authenticity.''   The hospital had neither the expertise nor the equipment to perform organ transplants, although it did perform skin grafts for burn victims, Tian said.

   ``Our hospital has never carried out human organ transplant work, still less could it carry out so-called organ trading,'' he said.

   Tian said Wang had once been officially reprimanded for cheating patients by selling them medicine given to him free by the hospital.

   He also produced what he said were written statements by other doctors named by Wang, denying his allegations.

   LAW BANS ORGAN TRADE   A Tianjin city official said local authorities strictly enforced a law banning the human organ trade and rules requiring the written consent of condemned prisoners, or the agreement of their families, to remove organs after execution.

   ``China does not allow any work unit or individual to willfully handle corpses or organs after executions have been carried out,'' said Chen Su, deputy director of the Tianjin city government's news department.

   ``Tianjin strictly enforces national laws and regulations in this matter.''   Wang told Congress doctors and government officials had colluded to devise procedures to remove body parts at execution sites, sometimes while the victims' hearts were still beating, to ensure organs were not damaged.

   He said he became tormented by the practice after following orders to remove the skin of a still-living prisoner in October 1995.

   The U.S. government expressed its concern over the accusations with Chinese officials last week.

   And some U.S. lawmakers are trying to ban training visits to the United States by Chinese doctors, who they say could use the trips to recruit potential transplant patients to come to China.