December 8, 2011 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H8299 As he knows, Congressman WALZ has Street millionaires, not slash Medicare nese medical schools taught that many oth- been working hard on this, and I know benefits, not layoff thousands of peo- erwise wicked criminals volunteered their that he will be very inclined to work ple. organs as a final penance. Right after the first shots the van door was with you and with the committees of It’s time to stop putting Wall Street thrust open and two men with white surgical jurisdiction; and I will certainly be first and before Main Street. Wash- coats thrown over their uniforms carried a able to work with you as well on this ington ought not go on vacation until body in, the head and feet still twitching issue because, as I say, Congressman we take care of this problem. slightly. The young doctor noted that the WALZ has worked very hard on this. f wound was on the right side of the chest as I think all of us agree, as you just in- he had expected. When body #3 was laid CHINA ORGAN HARVESTING dicated, that no Member of Congress down, he went to work. (Mr. PITTS asked and was given per- Male, 40-ish, Han Chinese. While the other ought to be using insider information retail organs in the van were slated for the to trade in the stock market to dis- mission to address the House for 1 profitable foreigner market, the doctor had advantage, obviously, others who are minute and to revise and extend his re- seen the paperwork indicating this kidney trading in the stock market. So I marks.) was tissue-matched for transplant into a 50– thank the gentleman for his comments, Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, an arti- year-old Chinese man. Without the trans- look forward to working with him and, cle in last Monday’s Weekly Standard plant, that man would die. With it, the same again, in closing, hope that we can reveals the systematic execution and man would rise miraculously from his hos- pital bed and go on to have a normal life for reach bipartisan agreement on so many harvesting of organs in China’s prisons. The article provides firsthand ac- 25 years or so. By 2016, given all the anti-tis- major pieces of legislation that we sue-rejection drug advances in China, they need to pass prior to leaving this. counts of the targeted elimination of could theoretically replace the liver, lungs, I will tell the gentleman I hope his religious prisoners, prisoners of con- or heart—maybe buy that man another 10 to side agrees, my side will not want to science, and political opponents of the 15 years. adjourn, nor will it support adjourn- regime. Minorities, including Falun Body #3 had no special characteristics save ment, until such time as we act on the Gong, Uyghurs, House Christians, and an angry purple line on the neck. The doctor unemployment insurance and the mid- Tibetans have been executed, followed recognized the forensics. Sometimes the po- by organ transplant surgeries—some lice would twist a wire around a prisoner’s dle class tax cuts. throat to prevent him from speaking up in I yield back the balance of my time. being performed while the victims are court. The doctor thought it through me- f still alive, numbering in the tens of thodically. Maybe the police didn’t want this thousands. prisoner to talk because he had been a de- HOUR OF MEETING ON TOMORROW Furthermore, foreign companies are ranged killer, a thug, or mentally unstable. Mr. CANTOR. Mr. Speaker, I ask already making investments to benefit After all, the Chinese penal system was a unanimous consent that when the off of the thriving organ transplant daily sausage grinder, executing hardcore House adjourns today, it adjourn to market. Pharmaceutical companies criminals on a massive scale. Yes, the young meet at 11 a.m. tomorrow, and further, like Roche and Isotechnika Pharma doctor knew the harvesting was wrong. have been involved in clinical drug Whatever crime had been committed, it when the House adjourns on that day, would be nice if the prisoner’s body were al- it adjourn to meet at noon on Monday, testing of transplant patients. A Brit- lowed to rest forever. Yet was his surgical December 12, 2011, for morning-hour de- ish firm, TFP Ryder Healthcare, is pro- task that different from an obstetrician’s? bate and 2 p.m. for legislative business. posing a medical facility that would in- Harvesting was rebirth, harvesting was life, The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. clude an organ transplant center. as revolutionary an advance as antibiotics or RIGELL). Is there objection to the re- Before they follow suit, U.S. compa- steroids. Or maybe, he thought, they didn’t quest of the gentleman from Virginia? nies must understand the unethical cli- want this man to talk because he was a po- There was no objection. mate that exists in China. And our litical prisoner. Nineteen years later, in a secure European f State Department and the U.N. must location, the doctor laid out the puzzle. He treat these actions as an abuse of Chi- asked that I keep his identity a secret. Chi- EXTEND THE MIDDLE CLASS TAX na’s international agreements and CUT nese medical authorities admit that the human rights of their own people. lion’s share of transplant organs originate (Ms. BERKLEY asked and was given [From WeeklyStandard.com, Dec. 5, 2011] with executions, but no mainland Chinese doctors, even in exile, will normally speak of permission to address the House for 1 THE XINJIANG PROCEDURE performing such surgery. To do so would re- minute and to revise and extend her re- (By Ethan Gutmann) marks.) mind international medical authorities of an To figure out what is taking place today in Ms. BERKLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise issue they would rather avoid—not China’s a closed society such as northwest China, soaring execution rate or the exploitation of today on behalf of Nevada’s middle sometimes you have to go back a decade, criminal organs, but rather the systematic class families. Because of the economic sometimes more. elimination of China’s religious and political downturn, thousands of Nevadans are One clue might be found on a hilltop near prisoners. Yet even if this doctor feared con- struggling to find a job, pay their rent, southern Guangzhou, on a partly cloudy au- sequences to his family and his career, he did and put food on their families’ tables. tumn day in 1991. A small medical team and not fear embarrassing China, for he was born They cannot afford a tax increase. a young doctor starting a practice in inter- into an indigenous minority group, the However, Washington gridlock is nal medicine had driven up from Sun Yat-sen Uighurs. Medical University in a van modified for sur- Every Uighur witness I approached over threatening just that, a massive tax in- gery. Pulling in on bulldozed earth, they the course of two years—police, medical, and crease on middle class families. Why? found a small fleet of similar vehicles— security personnel scattered across two con- Because some Washington Republicans clean, white, with smoked glass windows and tinents—related compartmentalized frag- refuse to roll back special tax breaks prominent red crosses on the side. The police ments of information to me, often through for Wall Street millionaires in order to had ordered the medical team to stay inside halting translation. They acknowledged the pay for a middle class tax cut for 1.2 for their safety. Indeed, the view from the risk to their careers, their families, and, in million Nevadans. That’s just not side window of lines of ditches—some filled several cases, their lives. Their testimony right. in, others freshly dug—suggested that the reveals not just a procedure evolving to meet hilltop had served as a killing ground for So my message today is this: no holi- the lucrative medical demand for living or- years. gans, but the genesis of a wider atrocity. day vacation for Congress without ex- Thirty-six scheduled executions would Behind closed doors, the Uighurs call their tending the middle class tax cut. We translate into 72 kidneys and corneas divided vast region in China’s northwest corner (bor- cannot go home while Nevada families among the regional hospitals. Every van con- dering on India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, are hurting and desperate for this ex- tained surgeons who could work fast: 15–30 Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and tension of their payroll tax cuts. minutes to extract. Drive back to the hos- Mongolia) East Turkestan. The Uighurs are However, that’s going to require pital. Transplant within six hours. Nothing ethnically Turkic, not East Asian. They are Washington Republicans to stop pro- fancy or experimental; execution would Muslims with a smattering of Christians, probably ruin the heart. and their language is more readily under- tecting Wall Street millionaires and With the acceleration of Chinese medical stood in Tashkent than in Beijing. By con- start putting Nevada’s families first. expertise over the last decade, organs once trast, Beijing’s name for the so-called Auton- The only fair way to achieve this is to considered scraps no longer went to waste. It omous Region, Xinjiang, literally translates roll back special tax breaks for Wall wasn’t public knowledge exactly, but Chi- as ‘‘new frontier.’’ When Mao invaded in 1949,

VerDate Mar 15 2010 03:32 Dec 09, 2011 Jkt 019060 PO 00000 Frm 00035 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\K08DE7.094 H08DEPT1 smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with HOUSE H8300 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE December 8, 2011 Han Chinese constituted only 7 percent of ing his head. According to his colleague, it ‘‘This one. It’s this one.’’ the regional population. Following the flood had been a normal procedure—the unwanted Sprawled on the blood-soaked ground was a of Communist party administrators, soldiers, bodies kicked into a trench, the useful man, around 30, dressed in navy blue over- shopkeepers, and construction corps, Han corpses hoisted into the harvesting vans, but alls. All convicts were shaved, but this one Chinese now constitute the majority. The then he heard something coming from a van, had long hair. party calculates that Xinjiang will be its top like a man screaming. ‘‘That’s him. We’ll operate on him.’’ oil and natural gas production center by the ‘‘Like someone was still alive?’’ Nijat re- ‘‘Why are we operating?’’ Enver protested, end of this century. members asking. ‘‘What kind of screams?’’ feeling for the artery in the man’s neck. To protect this investment, Beijing tradi- ‘‘Like from hell.’’ ‘‘Come on. This man is dead.’’ tionally depicted all Uighur nationalists— Nijat shrugged. The regiment had more Enver stiffened and corrected himself. ‘‘No. violent rebels and non-violent activists than enough sloppiness to go around. He’s not dead.’’ alike—as CIA proxies. Shortly after 9/11, that A few months later, three death row pris- ‘‘Operate then. Remove the liver and the conspiracy theory was tossed down the mem- oners were being transported from detention kidneys. Now! Quick! Be quick!’’ Following the chief surgeon’s directive, the ory hole. Suddenly China was, and always to execution. Nijat had become friendly with team loaded the body into the ambulance. has been, at war with al Qaeda-led Uighur one in particular, a very young man. As Enver felt himself going numb: Just cut the terrorists. No matter how transparently op- Nijat walked alongside, the young man clothes off. Just strap the limbs to the table. portunistic the switch, the American intel- turned to Nijat with eyes like saucers: ‘‘Why Just open the body. He kept making at- ligence community saw an opening for Chi- did you inject me?’’ nese cooperation in the war on terror, and Nijat hadn’t injected him; the medical di- tempts to follow normal procedure—steri- signaled their acquiescence by allowing Chi- rector had. But the director and some legal lize, minimal exposure, sketch the cut. nese state security personnel into Guanta- officials were watching the exchange, so Enver glanced questioningly at the chief sur- namo to interrogate Uighur detainees. Nijat lied smoothly: ‘‘It’s so you won’t feel geon. ‘‘No anaesthesia,’’ said the chief sur- While it is difficult to know the strength of much pain when they shoot you.’’ geon. ‘‘No life support.’’ The anaesthesiologist just stood there, the claims of the detainees’ actual connec- The young man smiled faintly, and Nijat, arms folded—like some sort of ignorant peas- tions to al Qaeda, the basic facts are these: sensing that he would never quite forget that ant, Enver thought. Enver barked at him. During the 1990s, when the Chinese drove the look, waited until the execution was over to ‘‘Why don’t you do something?’’ Uighur rebel training camps from neigh- ask the medical director: ‘‘Why did you in- ‘‘What exactly should I do, Enver? He’s al- boring countries such as Kazakhstan and ject him?’’ ready unconscious. If you cut, he’s not going Pakistan, some Uighurs fled to Afghanistan ‘‘Nijat, if you can transfer to some other where a portion became Taliban soldiers. to respond.’’ section, then go as soon as possible.’’ But there was a response. As Enver’s scal- And yet, if the Chinese government claims ‘‘What do you mean? Doctor, exactly what pel went in, the man’s chest heaved spas- that the Uighurs constitute their own Is- kind of medicine did you inject him with?’’ modically and then curled back again. lamic fundamentalist problem, the fact is ‘‘Nijat, do you have any beliefs?’’ Enver, a little frantic now, turned to the that I’ve never met a Uighur woman who ‘‘Yes. Do you?’’ chief surgeon. ‘‘How far in should I cut?’’ won’t shake hands or a man who won’t have ‘‘It was an anticoagulant, Nijat. And ‘‘You cut as wide and deep as possible. We a drink with me. Nor does my Jewish-sound- maybe we are all going to hell.’’ are working against time.’’ ing name appear to make anyone flinch. In I first met Enver Tohti—a soft-spoken, Enver worked fast, not bothering with one of those vino veritas sessions, I asked a husky, Buddha of a man—through the infor- clamps, cutting with his right hand, moving local Uighur leader if he was able to get any mal Uighur network of London. I confess muscle and soft tissue aside with his left, sort of assistance from groups such as the Is- that my first impression was that he was slowing down only to make sure he excised lamic Human Rights Commission (where, as just another emigre living in public housing. the kidneys and liver cleanly. Even as Enver I found during a brief visit to their London But Enver had a secret. stitched the man back up—not internally, offices, veiled women flinch from an ex- His story began on a Tuesday in June 1995, there was no point to that anymore, just so tended male hand, drinks are forbidden, and when he was a general surgeon in an Urumqi the body might look presentable—he sensed my Jewish surname is a very big deal in- hospital. Enver recalled an unusual con- the man was still alive. I am a killer, Enver deed). ‘‘Useless!’’ he snorted, returning to versation with his immediate superior, the screamed inwardly. He did not dare to look the vodka bottle. chief surgeon: ‘‘Enver, we are going to do at the face again, just as he imagined a kill- So if Washington’s goal is to promote a re- something exciting. Have you ever done an er would avoid looking at his victim. formed China, then taking Beijing’s word for operation in the field?’’ The team drove back to Urumqi in silence. who is a terrorist is to play into the party’s ‘‘Not really. What do you want me to do?’’ On Thursday, the chief surgeon confronted hands. ‘‘Get a mobile team together and request Enver: ‘‘So. Yesterday. Did anything hap- Xinjiang has long served as the party’s il- an ambulance. Have everyone out front at pen? Yesterday was a usual, normal day. licit laboratory: from the atmospheric nu- nine tomorrow.’’ Yes?’’ clear testing in Lop Nur in the mid-sixties On a cloudless Wednesday morning, Enver Enver said yes, and it took years for him (resulting in a significant rise in cancers in led two assistants and an anaesthesiologist to understand that live organs had lower re- Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital) to the more re- into an ambulance and followed the chief jection rates in the new host, or that the bul- cent creation in the Tarim Desert of what surgeon’s car out of Urumqi going west. The let to the chest had—other than that first could well be the world’s largest labor camp, ambulance had a picnic atmosphere until sickening lurch—acted like some sort of estimated to hold 50,000 Uighurs, hardcore they realized they were entering the Western magical anaesthesia. He had done what he criminals, and practitioners of Falun Gong. Mountain police district, which specialized could; he had stitched the body back neatly And when it comes to the first organ har- in executing political dissidents. On a dirt for the family. And 15 years would elapse be- vesting of political prisoners, Xinjiang was road by a steep hill the chief surgeon pulled fore Enver revealed what had happened that ground zero. off, and came back to talk to Enver: ‘‘When Wednesday. In 1989, not long after Nijat Abdureyimu you hear a gunshot, drive around the hill.’’ As for Nijat, it wasn’t until 1996 that he turned 20, he graduated from Xinjiang Police ‘‘Can you tell us why we are here?’’ put it together. School and was assigned to a special police ‘‘Enver, if you don’t want to know, don’t It happened just about midnight, well after force, Regiment No. 1 of the Urumqi Public ask.’’ the cell block lights were turned off. Nijat Security Bureau. As one of the first Uighurs ‘‘I want to know.’’ found himself hanging out in the detention in a Chinese unit that specialized in ‘‘social ‘‘No. You don’t want to know.’’ compound’s administrative office with the security’’—essentially squelching threats to The chief surgeon gave him a quick, hard medical director. Following a pause in the the party—Nijat was employed as the good look as he returned to the car. Enver saw conversation, the director, in an odd voice, cop in Uighur interrogations, particularly that beyond the hill there appeared to be asked Nijat if he thought the place was the high-profile cases. I first met Nijat— some sort of armed police facility. People haunted. thin, depressed, and watchful—in a crowded were milling about—civilians. Enver half-sa- ‘‘Maybe it feels a little weird at night,’’ refugee camp on the outskirts of Rome. tirically suggested to the team that perhaps Nijat answered. ‘‘Why do you think that?’’ Nijat explained to me that he was well they were family members waiting to collect ‘‘Because too many people have been killed aware that his Chinese colleagues kept him the body and pay for the bullet, and the team here. And for all the wrong reasons.’’ under constant surveillance. But Nijat pre- responded with increasingly sick jokes to Nijat finally understood. The anticoagu- sented the image they liked: the little broth- break the tension. Then they heard a gun- lant. The expensive ‘‘execution meals’’ for er with the guileless smile. By 1994 he had shot, possibly a volley, and drove around to the regiment following a trip to the killing penetrated all of the government’s secret the execution field. ground. The plainclothes agents in the cells bastions: the detention center, its interroga- Focusing on not making any sudden moves who persuaded the prisoners to sign state- tion rooms, and the killing grounds. Along as he followed the chief surgeon’s car, Enver ments donating their organs to the state. the way, he had witnessed his fair share of never really did get a good look. He briefly And now the medical director was con- torture, executions, even a rape. So his curi- registered that there were 10, maybe 20 bod- firming it all: Those statements were real. osity was in the nature of professional inter- ies lying at the base of the hill, but the They just didn’t take account of the fact est when he questioned one of the Chinese armed police saw the ambulance and waved that the prisoners would still be alive when cops who came back from an execution shak- him over. they were cut up.

VerDate Mar 15 2010 03:32 Dec 09, 2011 Jkt 019060 PO 00000 Frm 00036 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A08DE7.053 H08DEPT1 smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with HOUSE December 8, 2011 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H8301 ‘‘Nijat, we really are going to hell.’’ 20 years, and hospital staff were told, ‘‘If you ‘‘That’s right, Murat, that’s right. Yes. Nijat nodded, pulled on his beer, and didn’t treat someone, you will get the same re- Just don’t ask any more questions. They are bother to smile. sult.’’ The separation between the Uighur bad people—enemies of the country.’’ On February 2, 1997, Bahtiyar Shemshidin and Chinese medical personnel deepened: But Murat kept asking questions, and over began wondering whether he was a police- Chinese doctors would stockpile prescrip- time, he learned the drill. Once they found a man in name only. Two years before, the tions rather than allow Uighur medical staff matching blood type, they would move to Chinese Public Security Bureau of the West- a key to the pharmacy, while Uighur pa- tissue matching. Then the political prisoner ern city of Ghulja recruited Bahtiyar for the tients were receiving 50 percent of their would get a bullet to the right side of the drug enforcement division. It was a natural usual doses. If a Uighur couple had a second chest. Murat’s instructor would visit the fit because Bahtiyar was tall, good-looking, child, even if the birth was legally sanc- execution site to match up blood samples. and exuded effortless Uighur authority. tioned, Chinese maternity doctors, she ob- The officials would get their organs, rise Bahtiyar would ultimately make his way to served, administered an injection (described from their beds, and check out. Canada and freedom, but he had no trouble as an antibiotic) to the infant. The nurse Six months later, around the first anniver- recalling his initial idealism; back then, could not recall a single instance of the same sary of Ghulja, five new officials checked in. Bahtiyar did not see himself as a Chinese injection given to a Chinese baby. Within The instructor told Murat to go back to the collaborator but as an emergency responder. three days the infant would turn blue and political wing for fresh blood. This time, For several years, heroin addiction had die. Chinese staffers offered a rote expla- Murat was told that harvesting political been creeping through the neighborhoods of nation to Uighur mothers: Your baby was prisoners was normal. A growing export. Ghulja, striking down young Uighurs like a too weak, your baby could not handle the High volume. The military hospitals are medieval plague. Yet inside the force, drug. leading the way. Bahtiyar quickly grasped that the Chinese Shortly after the Ghulja incident, a young By early 1999, Murat stopped hearing about heroin cartel was quietly protected, if not Uighur protester’s body returned home from harvesting political prisoners. Perhaps it encouraged, by the authorities. Even his re- a military hospital. Perhaps the fact that was over, he thought. cruitment was a bait-and-switch. Instead of the abdomen was stitched up was just evi- Yet the Xinjiang procedure spread. By the sending him after drug dealers, his Chinese dence of an autopsy, but it sparked another end of 1999, the Uighur crackdown would be superiors ordered him to investigate the round of riots. After that, the corpses were eclipsed by Chinese security’s largest-scale Meshrep—a traditional Muslim get-together wrapped, buried at gunpoint, and Chinese action since Mao: the elimination of Falun promoting clean living, sports, and Uighur soldiers patrolled the cemeteries (one is not Gong. By my estimate up to three million music and dance. If the Meshrep had flow- far from the current Urumqi airport). By Falun Gong practitioners would pass ered like a traditional herbal remedy against June, the nurse was pulled into a new case: through the Chinese corrections system. Ap- the opiate invader, the Chinese authorities A young Uighur protester had been arrested proximately 65,000 would be harvested, read it as a disguised attack on the Chinese and beaten severely. His family paid for his hearts still beating, before the 2008 Olym- state. release, only to discover that their son had pics. An unspecified, significantly smaller, In early January 1997, on the eve of Rama- kidney damage. The family was told to visit number of House Christians and Tibetans dan, the entire Ghulja police force—Uighurs a Chinese military hospital in Urumqi where likely met the same fate. and Chinese alike—were suddenly ordered to the hospital staff laid it out: One kidney, By Holocaust standards these are piddling surrender their guns ‘‘for inspection.’’ Now, 30,000 RMB (roughly $4,700). The kidney will numbers, so let’s be clear: China is not the almost a month later, the weapons were be healthy, they were assured, because the land of the final solution. But it is the land being released. But Bahtiyar’s gun was held transplant was to come from a 21-year-old of the expedient solution. Some will point to back. Bahtiyar went to the Chinese bureau- Uighur male—the same profile as their son. recent statements from the Chinese medical crat who controlled supplies and asked after The nurse learned that the ‘‘donor’’ was, in establishment admitting the obvious—Chi- it. ‘‘Your gun has a problem,’’ Bahtiyar was fact, a protester. na’s medical environment is not fully eth- told. In the early autumn of 1997, fresh out of a ical—and see progress. Foreign investors sus- ‘‘When will you fix the problem?’’ blood-work tour in rural Xinjiang, a young pect that eventually the Chinese might The bureaucrat shrugged, glanced at his Uighur doctor—let’s call him Murat—was someday—or perhaps have already—abandon list, and looked up at Bahtiyar with an pursuing a promising medical career in a organ harvesting in favor of the much more unblinking stare that said: It is time for you large Urumqi hospital. Two years later he lucrative pharmaceutical and clinical test- to go. By the end of the day, Bahtiyar got it: was planning his escape to Europe, where I ing industries. The problem with these Every Chinese officer had a gun. Every met him some years after. soothing narratives is that reports, some as Uighur officer’s gun had a problem. One day Murat’s instructor quietly in- recent as one year ago, suggest that the Chi- Three days later, Bahtiyar understood formed him that five Chinese government of- nese have not abandoned the Xinjiang proce- why. On February 5, approximately 1,000 ficials—big guys, party members—had dure. Uighurs gathered in the center of Ghulja. checked into the hospital with organ prob- In July 2009, Urumqi exploded in bloody The day before, the Chinese authorities ar- lems. Now he had a job for Murat: ‘‘Go to the street riots between Uighurs and Han Chi- rested (and, it was claimed, severely abused) Urumqi prison. The political wing, not the nese. The authorities massed troops in the six women, all Muslim teachers, all partici- criminal side. Take blood samples. Small regional capital, kicked out the Western pants in the Meshrep. The young men came ones. Just to map out the different blood journalists, shut down the Internet, and, without their winter coats to show they were types. That’s all you have to do.’’ over the next six months, quietly, mostly at unarmed, but, planned or unplanned, the ‘‘What about tissue matching?’’ night, rounded up Uighur males by the thou- Chinese police fired on the demonstrators. ‘‘Don’t worry about any of that, Murat. sands. According to information leaked by Casualty counts of what is known as the We’ll handle that later. Just map out the Uighurs held in captivity, some prisoners Ghulja incident remain shaky. Bahtiyar re- blood types.’’ were given physical examinations aimed calls internal police estimates of 400 dead, Clutching the authorization, and accom- solely at assessing the health of their retail but he didn’t see it; all Uighur policemen had panied by an assistant from the hospital, organs. The signals may be faint, but they been sent to the local jail ‘‘to interrogate Murat, slight and bookish, found himself fac- are consistent, and the conclusion is inescap- prisoners’’ and were locked in the compound ing approximately 15 prisoners, mostly able: China, a state rapidly approaching su- throughout the crisis. However, Bahtiyar did tough-guy Uighurs in their late twenties. As perpower status, has not just committed see Uighurs herded into the compound and the first prisoner sat down and saw the nee- human rights abuses—that’s old news—but thrown naked onto the snow—some bleeding, dle, the pleading began. has, for over a decade, perverted the most others with internal injuries. Ghulja’s main ‘‘You are a Uighur like me. Why are you trusted area of human expertise into per- Uighur clinic was effectively shut down when going to hurt me?’’ forming what is, in the legal parlance of a squad of Chinese special police arrested 10 ‘‘I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just taking human rights, targeted elimination of a spe- of the doctors and destroyed the clinic’s am- blood.’’ cific group. bulance. As the arrests mounted by late At the word ‘‘blood,’’ everything collapsed. Yet Nijat sits in refugee limbo in April, the jail became hopelessly over- The men howled and stampeded, the guards Neuchatel, Switzerland, waiting for a coun- crowded, and Uighur political prisoners were screaming and shoving them back into line. try to offer him asylum. He confessed to me. selected for daily executions. On April 24, The prisoner shrieked that he was innocent. He confessed to others. But in a world eager Bahtiyar’s colleagues witnessed the killing The Chinese guards grabbed his neck and not to offend China, no state wants his con- of eight political prisoners; what struck squeezed it hard. fession. Enver made his way to an obscure them was the presence of doctors in ‘‘special ‘‘It’s just for your health,’’ Murat said seminar hosted by the House of Commons on vans for harvesting organs.’’ evenly, suddenly aware the hospital func- Chinese human rights. When the MPs opened In Europe I spoke with a nurse who worked tionary was probably watching to make sure the floor to questions, Enver found himself in a major Ghulja hospital following the in- that Murat wasn’t too sympathetic. ‘‘It’s standing up and speaking, for the first time, cident. Nervously requesting that I provide just for your health,’’ Murat said again and of killing a man. I took notes, but no British no personal details, she told me that the hos- again as he drew blood. MP or their staffers could be bothered to pitals were forbidden to treat Uighur pro- When Murat returned to the hospital, he take Enver’s number. testers. A doctor who bandaged an arm re- asked the instructor, ‘‘Were all those pris- The implications are clear enough. Noth- ceived a 15-year sentence, while another got oners sentenced to death?’’ ing but self-determination for the Uighurs

VerDate Mar 15 2010 03:32 Dec 09, 2011 Jkt 019060 PO 00000 Frm 00037 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A08DE7.056 H08DEPT1 smartinez on DSK6TPTVN1PROD with HOUSE H8302 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE December 8, 2011 can suffice. The Uighurs, numbering 13 mil- talk about other States, I better talk seven sites across the State of Illinois. lion, are few, but they are also desperate. about my own State, the State of Illi- Our neighbors to the north have three They may fight. War may come. On that day, nois. commercial reactors operating on two as diplomats across the globe call for dia- In the State of Illinois, 50 percent of different sites, both of those on Lake logue with Beijing, may every nation look to its origins and its conscience. For my part, if our electricity is generated by nuclear Michigan. my Jewish-sounding name tells me anything, power. We’re one of the biggest nuclear So when we look at the 8.5 million it is this: The dead may never be fully power States in the country. We picked people that rely on the drinking water, avenged, but no people can accept being fa- a facility that’s actually closed, which much less the recreation, the fishing, tally exploited forever. is Zion Power Plant. all of the different forms of commerce f With that, I’d yield to my colleague, that happen on our Great Lakes, this is Mr. DOLD, to kind of talk about Zion, something that I think is critical. b 1510 the State of Illinois, and its location. The Senators from both the State of YUCCA MOUNTAIN Mr. DOLD. I want to thank the gen- Illinois and the State of Wisconsin tleman for yielding and certainly for have all been in favor of trying to uti- The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under taking this issue up, which I think is lize this facility out at Yucca Moun- the Speaker’s announced policy of Jan- so very, very critical not only for just tain, and it just makes sense. uary 5, 2011, the gentleman from Illi- the State of Illinois but for facilities Why would we want to store, Mr. nois (Mr. SHIMKUS) is recognized for 60 all across the country as we look at Speaker, over a thousand metric tons minutes as the designee of the major- how we can best store the used mate- of nuclear waste hundreds of feet away ity leader. rial from the nuclear facilities—the from the greatest source of fresh sur- Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, it’s spent fuel rods, more specifically. face water in our Nation? It is indeed great to get a chance to come back If you’ll notice here in Zion, which is the jewel of our ecosystem. This is down to the floor to visit with my col- just north of the district but certainly something that we need to protect, leagues and talk about an issue that affects the district just north of Chi- something that we need to have a long- I’ve been raising seven or eight weeks cago and the 10th district which I rep- term vision for. in a row. I’ll have a little more ex- resent, it’s right on the shores of Lake Yet what we don’t need to do is have tended time to go over what has tran- Michigan. The Great Lakes, 95 percent scattered sites all across our country spired over the past 6 to 7 months, and of all fresh surface water in the United of nuclear waste that has a greater po- that’s that this country really needs to States is from the Great Lakes. tential for disasters to happen. They’re address this high-level nuclear waste When we look at the amount of being stored right now in casks that problem in this country. drinking water that the State of Illi- are about 5 feet above the ground I’m glad to be joined with some of my nois uses, it’s an enormous percentage. water, above the water table, and what colleagues who I’ll yield to in a couple It’s coming from the Great Lakes. Yet, we’d like to do is take it a thousand of minutes. in our infinite wisdom we’ve decided feet above the water table, a thousand But just to start in a synopsis, based that we want to store the fuel rods just feet below ground. upon the parts of the country that we a sheer several hundred feet from the This is something that makes abso- visited, for us to move past the logjam shores of Lake Michigan, 5 feet above lutely perfect sense, and I welcome the that’s in the other body, we have to the water table. gentleman’s colloquy in terms of talk- find 60 Senators who will vote to move If we take a look at Yucca Mountain, ing about not only this site, and I forward what we know is Federal law. the reason why Yucca Mountain was thank you for bringing it up week after The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 chosen was Yucca Mountain is unique- week, trying to make sure that we try recognized and determined that Yucca ly suited as the premier place. If we and get through to our colleagues on Mountain would be the national reposi- were to store any place spent fuel rods, the other side of the building to make tory for high-level nuclear waste. this would be the ideal location. A sure they can move this commonsense I think a lot of folks would say, well, thousand feet below the ground. A piece of legislation forward. so if it’s a law, why aren’t we there? thousand feet above the water table. A How much have we spent already at Well, the reason we’re not there now is very dry, arid environment. And cor- Yucca Mountain? I think it’s in the $14 because the majority leader of the Sen- rect me if I’m wrong: Where are the billion range. ate has blocked it, along with the nearest inhabitants of Yucca Moun- Mr. SHIMKUS. My colleague is cor- President of the United States. tain? Is it 100 miles? rect. We’ve already spent about $14.5 This time is being spent to help edu- Mr. SHIMKUS. The city of Las billion dollars in the research, the de- cate the American public, Mr. Speaker, Vegas, which is the major metropolitan velopment, the exploration, the test- on where is the high level nuclear area, is a hundred miles from Yucca ing. A lot of money, time, effort, and waste, what communities, what States Mountain. some of our greatest minds have been are affected, and what Senators should What people have a hard time under- involved. be held somewhat accountable for the standing about the nuclear test area, I don’t really think you have to be positions they take as far as high-level this is where the nuclear test site was. one of the greatest minds. The point I nuclear waste? The Federal Government owns numer- always say is, common sense says in On the chart to my far left, through- ous parcels of land around Yucca the desert underneath a mountain. out this last half a year, we need 60 Mountain. The communities right out- Isn’t that where you would want high- votes. We’ve got at least 27 Senators side the reservation—and I think the level nuclear waste versus right off the who we know already support this whole test site area is like the size of shore of Lake Michigan? based upon votes or public statements. New Hampshire—but the communities, Mr. DOLD. It seems certainly like We have eight that really have not had what’s interesting about this debate, common sense to me, and I certainly a chance to address this by a vote or the communities right outside the gate applaud the gentleman’s efforts and haven’t made a public statement on it are fully supportive of Yucca Mountain thank you for giving me the time. I yet. And we have seven ‘‘nays’’ or being the repository for high-level nu- just want to make sure that this isn’t seven ‘‘no’’ votes. clear waste. And why do I know that? just important for the folks in the With that, just because I appreciate Because I visited them. I’ve been in State in Illinois and the folks in Wis- my colleagues taking time out, I would their communities. I went to the com- consin, and the people in Michigan that like to first yield to my colleague from munity center. They welcomed me, and are surrounding the Great Lakes, and the State of Illinois, no disrespect to we talked about how this was impor- specifically Lake Michigan; it’s all the my colleague from the State of Geor- tant for the country and their local Great Lakes. And it’s not just in Illi- gia, to go into a discussion about one communities. nois. There are nuclear power facilities of the areas that we addressed, one of Mr. DOLD. This is absolutely critical all across the country. the first sites we talked about. I fig- for the country. When we look at just We need to have a safe, secure way to ured I’d better come forward and talk the State of Illinois, the State of Illi- be able to store these spent fuel rods, about my own State. If I’m going to nois has got 13 commercial reactors at and I think Yucca Mountain has been

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