A photo can be more persuasive than a thousand words.
Showing photos of a boiler house to a score of journalists, a Chinese
official and two doctors yesterday exposed Falun Gong's rumors about a so-called
"concentration camp" where, the cult claimed, its followers were cremated after
organ harvesting.
The small window-paned boiler house with a brick chimney nearby in a
residential garden is a civilian-use facility, said Zhang Xu, vice president of
a hospital in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang.
Since March 8, Falun Gong followers have spread rumors that more than 6,000
Falun Gong practitioners were imprisoned at a "concentration camp" in Sujiatun,
a district in Shenyang.
They alleged that many of the followers were cremated after their organs were
harvested.
Falun Gong followers later recanted, saying that the "concentration camp" was
actually in a small hospital, the Sujiatun Hospital on Thrombus Diseases, where
Zhang is a vice president.
"A picture of the so-called crematorium in Sujiatun widely used on Falun
Gong's Websites is actually a photo of the back of our boiler house, shot from
outside the hospital compound, and my photo shows you the front side of the
boiler house," Zhang told the press.
Zhang said the window-paned boiler house, taking up an area of 180 square
meters, is open to the public. "How could that boiler be a cremation furnace?"
he asked. "I don't know whether Falun Gong followers are ignorant or they are
just trying to fool the whole world?"
He said the boiler was used to provide winter heat, disinfect medical
equipment, and cook food for patients and their families.
Present with Zhang at yesterday's news briefing was Zheng Bin, the vice head
of the district government of Sujiatun. She denounced the Falun Gong rumors as
"groundless."
"There were Falun Gong followers in Sujiatun, but all of them are now
undergoing rehabilitation in places outside the district," Zheng said.
"Falun Gong followers have slung mud at both my district and the country with
their absurd, malicious lies."
Zhang Yuqin, another vice-president of the hospital, said the hospital, with
only 300 beds, could not possibly have accommodated 6,000 people, neither in the
"basement" nor in the so-called "crematorium."
Zhang Xu said the hospital staff and residents of Sujiatun have been
receiving phone calls from overseas since March 18, some ringing even at
midnight. "This has affected people's life."