ILKLEY, UK—A picturesque, quiet village reeled in shock from a horror they'd never imagined—thousands of miles away, China's ongoing organ harvesting atrocity.
The award-winning documentary "State Organs: Unmasking Transplant Abuse in China" was screened at Clarke Foley Community Hub, Ilkley, West Yorkshire, on Oct. 18 and 19. The audience was stunned by what's happening in China.
This 76-minute documentary exposes China's transplant industry, fueled by forced organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience—revealed through two families' chilling 20-year quest to find their loved ones, who vanished without trace in China.
Keighley Councilor Dawn Thewlis said her first impression was disbelief that such things happen in this world. "Now I believe it," she said, adding that she would like to contact the local Playhouse to see if they'd like to screen it.
"I hope they accept the opportunity, because despite knowing that attendees will be shocked, they need to know—they need to know. And I needed to know."
“I can't believe the human depravity of it all,” she said. “Some people would kill others in that way to benefit other people for money is a shocking, shocking thing. And I'm sure that there'll be many, many people in this world who would find it difficult to believe.”
Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, was started in China in 1992 by Mr. Li Hongzhi and persecuted since 1999 by the communist regime. The campaign involves mass arrests, detention, torture, forced labor, brainwashing, and organ harvesting to eradicate the followers.
The practice is composed of a gentle meditation and exercises based on the principles of truth, compassion, and forbearance. Thewlis said these values are “humanity. How did that frighten the Chinese government so much that they had to round everybody up and put them in cattle-type conditions with a death sentence to harvest their organs?”
Councilor Ellen Bailey echoed Thewlis’s proposal to do more possible local screenings, to raise “people’s awareness. I think it's good that people get the opportunity to see what's happening around the globe.”
Retired lawyer Jill—who prefers not to reveal her last name—agreed she was not surprised that persecution and organ harvesting happen in China. “Astonishing, troubling, but predictable. That’s because it’s a communist regime, the way it controls everybody.”
“When I was leafleting on the street, people really responded: ‘This is important—good job you are doing this,’” she said.
Joe Short, Clarke Foley Community Hub’s Business Manager, believes it’s “a modern-day genocide. It's horrendous.” He thanks and really admires Yukari’s work “to try and get that out there, to try and raise awareness of it.”
“Certainly something I'm conscious of now—something that I will discuss with others, and I hope that other people who were here today will do the same. So, yeah, I would advise anyone to watch it and face up to it, do some research.”