編者按：2007年8月9日，加拿大主流媒體《渥太華公民報》發表文章，對前加拿大下院議員大衛·基爾格的所謂法輪功受迫害的報告提出了質疑，并稱為“蘇家屯故事”。文章主要內容如下。
渥太華公民報 格蘭.麥克喬治 2007年8月9日
基爾格先生曾經是加拿大政府負責亞太地區事務的部長，長期鼓吹人權。2005年，當他還是無黨派的下院議員時，曾威脅時任加拿大總理保羅·馬丁，如果加拿大不對蘇丹達爾富爾地區提供更多的幫助的話，他將撤銷對馬丁有限政府政策的支持。
基爾格先生去年與溫尼伯湖的律師大衛·麥塔斯合著的一份關于法輪功受迫害的報告引起了國際關注。
和以前的報告不一樣的是，這份麥塔斯—基爾格報告完全信任“法輪功”的判斷和主張。今天，它的結論還經常被反華運動的信徒當作對中國政府指控的證據拿來引用。
然而，當他們的很多工作被國際人權專家所信奉的時候，一些人也對報告的某些內容和它的方法論提出了質疑。
中國駐渥太華大使館批評報告是“毫無根據的”、是“建立在謠言和錯誤判斷基礎之上的?！?/p>
但是報告的其他部分仍然是可疑的，美國國會研究人員認為報告中的一些關鍵主張“似乎與其他的調查發現互相矛盾?！?/p>
報告的中間部分聲稱中國政府摘取“法輪功”練習者的器官賣給外國游客?！胺ㄝ喒Α敝С终叱錆M感情地說中國政府在“法輪功”練習者被囚禁或處死的地方用簡單的工具摘走了他們的器官，并將尸體燒掉。
2006年3月，一個所謂在中國東北有“集中營”的故事被大紀元時報報道出來。大紀元時報是專門刊載關于“法輪功”受迫害的、充滿敵意的反共評論和故事的報紙。這份報紙聲稱在蘇家屯秘密集中營里4500名法輪功追隨者被處死并被燒掉。
主流媒體很快開始報道這個故事。國家評論在線，美國的一個保守網站寫道：“中國人權運動人士相信這個地名能夠引起像特雷布林卡或其它什么名字一樣的戰栗?！倍鄠惗嗵枅髮⑻K家屯和納粹集中營進行了簡單的比較。
基爾格先生和麥塔斯先生被總部設在美國的“法輪功受迫害真相聯合調查團”邀請去中國做關于中國侵犯人權的調查。他們沒能進入中國境內，卻通過文獻和采訪來工作。7月，他們發表了一份報告，結論是中國“處死了一大批但是不祥的法輪功良心犯?！?/p>
作者強調他們沒有任何證據可以證明他們的結論，但是他們找到了由一位以假名安妮居住在美國的婦女講述的“可信”的故事，這名婦女聲稱在中國時曾是一位外科醫生的妻子。
安妮，這個以前曾在大紀元時報的故事中出現的女人告訴加拿大人，她的丈夫曾經在蘇家屯從大約2000名“法輪功”練習者的身上摘取了眼角膜。她說，之后，身體被送到其他醫生那里摘取更多的器官，然后，遺體就被燒掉了。麥塔斯先生和基爾格先生寫到，他們只是在用其他信息來證實安妮所提供的消息。
報告還依靠翻譯過來的電話記錄做為證據，這些紀錄被說成是中國官員確認從“法輪功”被拘留者身上摘取器官。
隨著報道發表，對“蘇家屯事件”真實性的懷疑也在增加。
美國務院稱美國駐沈陽領事館和駐北京大使館的官員曾兩次被邀請去蘇家屯，但是他們只發現了“一個普通的公共醫院”。
香港媒體的記者也沒有發現任何“法輪功”追隨者所謂的“地下死亡集中營”，他們證實，所謂焚燒尸體的設施其實就是一個鍋爐房。
當一個聲明反對共產主義中國政府的前政治犯吳宏達質疑蘇家屯事件所用的證據時，蘇家屯故事變得更加不可信。他的組織調查發現這些證據都是“不可靠的”。他認為這個事件“可能是被故意捏造出來的”。
對麥塔斯—基爾格報告的質疑已經超出了對蘇家屯事件的質疑。一份由美國國會研究機構起草的報告認為，麥塔斯—基爾格報告的大部分“并沒有提出新的或獨立獲得的證據，很大程度上是依賴于邏輯推理?！蓖瑫r，也質疑電話記錄，這些紀錄被說成是中國官員證實從“法輪功”被拘留者身上摘取器官。
研究機構的報告認為：“一些人認為如此明顯的證據似乎不太會被得到，因為這些敏感信息是由中國政府控制的，由此產生對電話記錄可靠性的質疑”。
今年1月份，麥塔斯先生和基爾格先生發表了報告的更新版，重申他們相信那位匿名的外科醫生前妻的話。他們聲稱，吳先生關于蘇家屯事件的結論是在調查團沒有完成工作之前就匆忙得出的。
“也就是說吳先生的觀點不是依據他完整的調查報告而得出的?！彼麄儚娬{。
吳先生組織的一位女發言人本周卻表示，吳先生沒有改變在蘇家屯事件上的立場。
勞改研究基金會的麗莎.坡特索說：“我們沒有發現任何證據可以證實他們所描述的地點、數字和事件?！?/p>
麥塔斯先生說如果將他所說的認為是基于將大紀元時報中提到的集中營和醫院等信息的一種錯誤混合，那么可能會對蘇家屯事件的認識產生偏差。他表示，他仍然相信那位外科醫生前妻所說的話。
英文原文：
The Ottawa Citizen questions 'The story of Sujiatun'
Mr. Kilgour, who once served as secretary of state for the Asia-Pacific region, has a long record as a human rights advocate. In 2005, when sitting as an independent MP, he threatened to withdraw support for then-prime minister Paul Martin's narrow minority government if Canada did not do more to help the people of Darfur, in the Sudan.
Mr. Kilgour made international headlines last year with a report on the persecution of Falun Gong, co-written with Winnipeg lawyer David Matas.
Like no other document before it, the Matas-Kilgour report gave credence to allegations advanced by Falun Gong. Today, its conclusions are regularly cited by the movement's devotees as evidence of abuse at the hands of the Chinese government.
And while much of their work has been embraced by international human rights experts, some have raised doubts about some aspects of the report and its methodology.
The Chinese Embassy in Ottawa dismissed it as "groundless" and "based on rumours and false allegations."
But others were also dubious. Researchers working for the U.S. Congress concluded that some of the key allegations in the report "appear to be inconsistent with the findings of other investigations."
At the centre of the report is the claim that the Chinese government harvests the organs of Falun Gong practitioners for sale to foreign tourists. Falun supporters have charged that the Chinese government operated a facility where practitioners were imprisoned, executed, their organs removed and their bodies cremated.
The stories of an alleged concentration camp in northeastern China first surfaced in March 2006 with reports in the Epoch Times, a newspaper that publishes virulently anti-Communist commentary and stories alleging persecution of the Falun Gong movement. The paper cited a secret concentration camp at Sujiatun where, it alleged, 4,500 followers had been executed and cremated.
The mainstream media soon jumped on the story. The National Review Online, a conservative website in the U.S., wrote that Chinese human-rights activists believe that this name should cause the same shudders as Treblinka and the others. The Toronto Sun made the easy comparison between the Sujiatun claims and Nazi death camps.
Mr. Kilgour and Mr. Matas were asked by a U.S.-based group called the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong in China to look into the allegations of human rights violations. They were not allowed into China, but worked from documents and interviews. In July, they issued a report that concluded China had put to death a large but unknown number of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience.
Although the authors stress that they did not rely on any one piece of evidence to reach their conclusion, they said they found credible the story of an unnamed woman living in the U.S. with the pseudonym Annie, who claimed to be the former wife of a surgeon in China.
Annie, previously featured in an Epoch Times story, told the Canadians that her husband had removed the corneas from approximately 2,000 Falun Gong prisoners at Sujiatun. The bodies were passed on to other doctors who removed more organs, and then cremated the remains, she claimed. Mr. Matas and Mr. Kilgour used her information only where it could be corroborated by other information, they wrote.
The report also relied on translated transcripts of telephone calls in which Chinese officials were said to confirm the common harvesting of organs from Falun Gong detainees.
By the time the report was released, doubts about the veracity of the Sujiatun story were growing.
The U.S. State Department said officials from its consulate in nearby Shenyang City and the embassy in Beijing had visited Sujiatun twice and found only a normal public hospital.
Reporters from a Hong Kong newspaper also found no sign of an underground death camp that Falun followers alleged. A machine that was said to be an oven for cremating bodies was, in fact, a boiler room, they concluded.
The Sujiatun story lost more air when Harry Wu, a former political prisoner of the Chinese government and outspoken voice against the Communist government, said he doubted the witness accounts upon which the Sujiatun stories relied. His organization investigated and found the witness statements unreliable. He concluded the story may be intentionally fabricated.
While Mr. Wu agreed that the Chinese government brutally persecutes the Falun Gong and others, he said there was no evidence to support the claim that 4,500 practitioners were killed at Sujiatun.
Questions about the Matas-Kilgour report went beyond the allegations about Sujiatun. A paper prepared by the U.S. Congressional Research Service concluded that the report for the most part "does not bring forth new or independently-obtained testimony and relies largely upon the making of logical inferences." It also questioned the transcripts of telephone calls, in which Chinese officials are said to admit using Falun Gong organs.
"Some argue that such apparent candour would seem unlikely given Chinese government controls over sensitive information, which may raise questions about the credibility of the telephone recordings," the research service paper said.
In January, Mr. Matas and Mr. Kilgour released an updated version of their report and repeated their belief in the story of the unnamed former wife of a surgeon. Mr. Wu had jumped to conclusions about Sujiatun before investigators from his organization completed their work, they claimed.
"What this means is that the views of Harry Wu were not based on the full reports of his investigation," the report claimed.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Wu's organization said this week he has not changed his position on the Sujiatun allegations.
"We haven't found any evidence to support the location and the number and events they have described going on," said Lisa Pertoso, of the Laogai Research Foundation.
Still, by most accounts, there had been a marked rise in the number of organs available for transplantation in China. The government has acknowledged that some organs may come from prisoners, but it claims the condemned agree to donation before their executions.
Some of the executed could be political prisoners or Falun Gong followers, of course. But China vehemently denies an orchestrated genocide or use of Nazi-style concentration camps involving Falun Gong. The government also moved last year to prohibit the sale of organs.
Mr. Matas says there may have been some confusion over Sujiatun based on what he says was a mistaken blending of information about a prison camp and a hospital in one of the Epoch Times stories. He says he continues to believe what the surgeon's ex-wife told him.
(The Ottawa Citizen Published Thursday, August 09, 2007)