China Organ Harvesting Report Authors Win Rights Award During APEC

By Shar Adams and Fang Xiao, Epoch Times Australia Staff, Sep 04, 2007-

Two Canadian dignitaries will be the only Westerners among a field of Chinese to receive awards at a human rights ceremony in Sydney this week.

The Honourable David Kilgour, former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, and international human rights lawyer David Matas will receive the Guarding Justice Award for their report on illegal organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China and for their continuous efforts to bring international attention to human rights issues in relation to China.

The Asia-Pacific Human Rights Foundation will present the awards at a ceremony in the New South Wales State Parliament on Wednesday September 5, a statement said.

A range of human rights activists in China are to receive awards, including Professor Ding Zilin, who will receive the Casper Award as the representative of the Tiananmen Mothers group.

Professor Ding’s only son was killed by the Chinese army as he attended the student demonstrations at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Only 17 years old, her son was shot as he was yelling: “Don’t use force against the people,” Professor Ding told a CNN reporter.

Since then, Professor Ding has been an advocate for the relatives of those who died in the Tiananmen Square massacre by gathering financial support and collecting and collating evidence about the event.

Another award recipient is Chinese literary critic Mr Liu Xiaobo, who will receive the Conscience Courage Award as the current chairman of the literary freedom group PEN in China.

Safeguarding Citizen’s Rights and Resisting Violence awards will also be given to the Heilongjiang farmers Yang Chuanlin and Wang Guilin. Both rural activists were arrested in July this year for helping thousands of farmers protest at being thrown off their land by corrupt Communist Party officials. Mr Yang was also publicly advocating the slogan: “Human Rights wanted, Not Olympic Games”. According to Mr Yang’s family, he was officially charged with “inciting subversion of state power” on August 23.

The Human Rights Awards ceremony is one of a number of events staged to draw attention to China’s human rights violations during the APEC leaders meetings in Sydney. …… ( more details from the Epochtimes’ report: China on The Public Agenda During APEC)