By Kelly Patricia O’Meara
Published by CCHR International
The Mental Health Industry Watchdog
July 15, 2016

In support of the recently passed Congressional Resolution, H.R. 343, confirming and denouncing the brutality of organ harvesting of members of the spiritual group, Falun Gong in China,[1] the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) calls for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to intervene in what constitutes a crime against humanity. CCHR applauds Congress and joins the many other organizations in condemning the practice of incarcerating and torturing Falun Gong practitioners in China’s psychiatric facilities and the harvesting of their organs.[2]

H.R. 343 details “nationwide persecution designed to eradicate the spiritual practice of Falun Gong,” in China, their members’ detention in camps where “torture and abuse are routine” and cites credible evidence that Falun Gong practitioners “being killed for their organs was highly probable.” The resolution demanded the end of the practice of “organ harvesting from all prisoners of conscience” and the “immediate end to the 17-year persecution” of the Falun Gong.[3]

In order to justify detainment in psychiatric facilities and prisons, those who pose a perceived threat to the social order in China, such as the Falun Gong, are diagnosed by psychiatrists with invented disorders that, on their face, are embarrassingly transparent, including: “delusions of reform,” “political maniacs,” and “litigious mania.” [4]

In fact, research conducted in 2014 by the Laogai Research Foundation found that Falun Gong members had been incarcerated in psychiatric custodial facilities called “Ankangs” (paradoxically meaning “peace and health”) based on the above psychiatric disorders to justify the indefinite incarceration, without trial, of dissidents and other so-called political undesirables on the grounds that they are criminally insane.[5]

Once incarcerated in Ankangs, psychiatric prisoners are forcibly injected with psychotropic drugs, receive massive amounts of electroshock through acupuncture needles, endure forced sleep deprivation and are tied up and force-fed for long periods of time. According to the Laogai Research Foundation, in order to “to maximize the discomfort of the victims in the Ankang,” psychiatric drugs “are administered in extremely high doses, thus exacerbating the side effects and causing horrific physical responses such as swelling of the whole body, paralysis, blood clots, and severe, sometimes fatal, palpitations, along with other painful reactions.” [6]

By anyone’s standards these abuses are unacceptable on every level and require immediate action.  The International Criminal Court (ICC) can prosecute individuals who have committed genocide and crimes against humanity. This includes Article 6 of the ICC’s Statute, in which genocide is described as acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” “killing members of the group” and “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.” Article 7, “Crimes against Humanity,” includes widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, by “imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law,” torture and persecution.[7] These are human rights abuses the Falun Gong have suffered for decades and continue without accountability.

CCHR charges that individuals to be held accountable should also include those psychiatrists responsible for overseeing treatment in the Ankangs and, potentially, even officials with the Chinese Society of Psychiatry that claimed the labeling and harmful “treatment” of the Falun Gong is a simple an error in training and diagnosis.

There are others who could have made a difference, yet failed to effectively act. For example, one can only wonder why the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), the governing body of psychiatric associations, has failed to expel the Chinese Society of Psychiatrists, (CSP) over the known abuses forced upon Falun Gong members. The CSP, which is a member of the WPA, agreed to adhere to the WPA’s human rights protections, which forbid introducing political judgments in psychiatric diagnosis.[8]

The WPA reneged on its 2002 agreement to send a delegation to China to investigate the charges that dissidents were being imprisoned and maltreated both in regular mental hospitals and in Ankangs.[9] Instead, it accepted the CSP’s internal investigation which identified only, “instances in which some Chinese psychiatrists failed to distinguish between spiritual-cultural beliefs and delusions, as a result of which persons were misdiagnosed and mistreated.”[10] [Emphasis added]

Since the WPA’s failure to take action and expel the CSP:

• Reports detail that over 150 Falun Gong members died between January and September 2008.[11]
• 

  A 2005 U.S. State Department report noted that some international observers believe at least half of China’s 250,000 labor camp prisoners were Falun Gong practitioners.

  A 2005 U.S. State Department report noted that some international observers believe at least half of China’s 250,000 labor camp prisoners were Falun Gong practitioners. [12]

• The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, reported it continued to be “alarmed by deaths in custody in China. Reports describe harrowing scenes in which detainees, many of whom are followers of the Falun Gong movement, die as a result of severe ill treatment, neglect or medical attention. The cruelty and brutality of these alleged acts of torture defy description.” [13]
• In November of 2011, the report “China: Systematic Psychiatric Torture of Falun Gong practitioners in hospitals” listed over 150 Chinese hospitals known to use torture against Falun Gong practitioners. According to the report, the overall outcomes of “psychiatric torture” often leaves victims in an “irreparable mental and physical state… it may even lead to death….They are reduced to a semi-comatose, ‘zombie,’ lifeless state, or cannot walk, talk or care for themselves.  Some are reduced to insanity.  They may also suffer from a variety of other health problems that they did not have before being tortured.” [14]
• In 2016, U.S. Representative Chris Smith reported “strong evidence that Falun Gong practitioners were singled out for organ harvesting.” Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, also stated that the “ghoulish and inhumane practice of robbing individuals of their freedom, throwing them in labor camps or prisons, and then executing them and harvesting their organs for transplants is beyond the pale of comprehension and must be opposed universally and ended unconditionally.”[15]

Despite these abuses, some at the hands of psychiatrists in China, the WPA has, by its blatant inaction, supported these abuses.  Astoundingly, in 2010 WPA chose China to hold its International Congress, co-hosted by CSP.[16]

Is it merely irony that in 1999, when the Falun Gong were banned in China[17], Western psycho-pharmaceutical interests already had begun to lay a foundation to introduce numerous psychiatric drugs to China, including: the antipsychotics Risperdal, Invega, and Invega Sustenna, prescribed to treat, among other conditions, “psychosis,” and antidepressants Cipramil, Lexapro and Prozac, and the stimulant, Concerta?[18]

While the Falun Gong was not in the business of treating mental illness, they did, however, teach exercises, which are seen as workable alternatives to the dangerous, even deadly, side effects of antidepressants. The results of such exercises are supported by a new Duke University Medical Center study, with the lead author stating they found “this exercise training to be just as effective as anti-depression medication.”[17] A recent Rutgers University study also found that meditation and aerobic exercise together helped reduce depression. [20]

Nevertheless, sales of antidepressants through 18 surveyed hospitals in China grew by 20% in 2006 to reach 206.15 million Yuan (US $27.4 million), compared with 86.75 million Yuan  in 2002 – a 138 percent increase over just four years.  In total, approximately 100 companies in China were producing antidepressants in 2006. [21]

Given the enormous increases in psychiatric drug sales in China, there is little doubt that the pharmaceutical industry has landed a lucrative market, driven by a psychiatric community willing to deliberately politicize psychiatric labeling.

With decades of condemnation of the psychiatric abuse of the Falun Gong and the harvesting of their organs, even greater international pressure must be brought to bear. This would not be the first time an appeal to the ICC has been made, with representations made in 2003 [22] and in 2015, David Kilgour, former Canadian MP and Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, called for the instigator of the persecution to be indicted before the ICC.[23] In February 2015, the European Parliament also condemned the persecution of the Falun Gong. It was reported: “In order to end this crime against humanity based on Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the genocide against Falun Gong practitioners based on Article 6 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, a resolution against organ harvesting in China was passed on December 12, 2013, in Strasbourg.”[24]

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights also calls on the WPA to stand with Congress, other legislatures and the United Nations on behalf of the Falun Gong, and break from its appalling record of failing to address and discipline its member’s ethics violations and crimes, as are now apparent in China and as is historically well-documented in the former Soviet Union, South Africa and, of course, Nazi Germany.

Kelly Patricia O’Meara is an award-winning former investigative reporter for the Washington Times’ Insight Magazine, penning dozens of articles exposing the fraud of psychiatric diagnosis and the dangers of the psychiatric drugs—including her ground-breaking 1999 cover story, “Guns & Doses,” exposing the link between psychiatric drugs and acts of senseless violence. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed book, Psyched Out: How Psychiatry Sells Mental Illness and Pushes Pills that Kill. Prior to working as an investigative journalist, O’Meara spent sixteen years on Capitol Hill as a congressional staffer to four Members of Congress. She holds a B.S. in Political Science from the University of Maryland.

References:

[1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-resolution/343; “US House of Representatives Unanimously Passes Legislation Condemning Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong in China,” The Epoch Times, 14 July 2016, http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2091178-us-house-of-representatives-condemns-organ-harvesting-of-falun-gong/

[2] “Report: China still harvesting organs from prisoners at a massive scale: ‘Ghoulish and inhumane practice,’” CNN, 24 June 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/23/asia/china-organ-harvesting/

[3] https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-resolution/343/text

[4] Carly Millenson,”The Ankang: An Examination of The Abusive Practices Within High Security Chinese Mental Institutions And a Discussion of How The Chinese Communist Party Has Turned Psychiatry Into An Instrument of Suppression,” Laogai Research Foundation 2002-2012, http://laogai.org/reports/ankang-examination-abusive-practices-within-high-security-chinese-mental-institutions-and;

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid; Mark Magnier, “Chinese Dissident Tells of Abuse in Asylum,” LA Times, 9 Nov 2005, http://articles.latimes.com/2005/nov/09/world/fg-asylum9; “The Laogai: Exercising Dictatorship Over Dissent,” Laogai Research Foundation, https://laogai.org/system/files/lrf_laogai_factsheet.pdf.

[7] https://www.icc-cpi.int/nr/rdonlyres/ea9aeff7-5752-4f84-be94-0a655eb30e16/0/rome_statute_english.pdf

[8] Jonathan Mirsky, “China’s Psychiatric Terror,” The New York Book Review, 27 Feb. 2003, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2003/02/27/chinas-psychiatric-terror/

[9] Stephen Gregory, “World Psychiatric Association forced to cancel investigation trip to China,”  Assoc. for Asian Research, 4/3/2004, http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/2012.html

[10] Ken Hausman, “WPA, Chinese Psychiatrists Agree on Psychiatry Abuse Charges,” Psychiatric News, 6 Aug. 2004, http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/pn.39.15.039000

[11]  “Statement on the 10-Year Persecution of Falun Gong,” David Kilgour, Member of Parliament, 20 Jul 2009, http://www.david-kilgour.com/2009/Jul_21_2009_03.php

[12] Gretchen Birkle, Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, “China’s Human Rights Record and Falun Gong,” Testimony Before the House Committee on International Relations, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations, Washington, DC, July 21, 2005, http://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/rm/2005/50110.htm.

[13]  CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS, INCLUDING THE QUESTION OF DISAPPEARANCES AND SUMMARY EXECUTIONS, Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Report of the Special Rapporteur, Asma Jahangir, United Nations, Economic and Social Council, 22 Dec 2003, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G03/172/60/PDF/G0317260.pdf?OpenElement.

[14] http://www.falunhr.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&Itemid=65&id=1857

[15] “Report: China still harvesting organs from prisoners at a massive scale: ‘Ghoulish and inhumane practice,’” CNN, 24 June 2016, http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/23/asia/china-organ-harvesting/

[16] http://www.wpanet.org/detail.php?section_id=16&category_id=85&content_id=929

[17] James Griffiths, “Why China fears the Falun Gong,” Los Angeles Daily News, 14 Jul 2014, http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20140714/why-china-fears-the-falun-gong.

[18] http://www.jnj.com.cn/en/our-products/prescription-products; Eli Lilly Warns Prozac Dispute In China May Scare Off Investors,” Wall Street Journal, 18 May 1998, http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB895438960533859500

19 “Study Finds Dose of Healthy Exercise Rivals Anti-depression Drugs-(Duke U.),”TCM Training, 13 July, 2015, 16:13:44, http://www.ontcm.com/show-6-475-1.html; Christopher Wanjek, “Falun Gong: Exercises & Spiritual Movement,” Live Science, 18 Jul 2013, http://www.livescience.com/38255-falun-gong.html.

[20] “Exercise and Meditation – Together – Help Beat Depression, Rutgers Study Finds,” Rutgers Today, 10 Feb. 2016, http://news.rutgers.edu/research-news/exercise-and-meditation-%E2%80%93-together-%E2%80%93-help-beat-depression-rutgers-study-finds/20160209#.V4P5NqJQCZQ

[21] “Uptake of Antidepressants Rises in China, New Statistics Reveal,” IHS, 20 Sept. 2007, http://www.ihs.com/products/global-insight/industry-economic-report.aspx?id=106597641

[22] “An Appeal to the International Criminal Court (ICC): The Criminal Acts of the 610 Office and Police Department in Qinhuangdao City,” 29 Jul 2003, http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2003/7/29/38638.html

[23] Cindy Chan and Pam McLennan, “Falun Gong Marks 16 Years of Persecution in China,” Epoch Times, 16 Jul 2016, http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1465584-falun-gong-marks-16-years-of-persecution-in-china/

[24] http://fofg.org/blog/2015/02/08/eu-parliament-members-voice-support-for-falun-gong-practitioners-in-heilongjiang-human-rights-case/