CHINA says detained American human rights activist Harry Wu Hongda has confessed to deliberately 'falsifying facts' in television reports on organ sales and the export of prison-made goods aired on the BBC last year.
In the first detailed report by Xinhua (the New China News Agency) since his arrest in Xinjiang last month, it said Wu admitted his reports were 'wrong' and 'untrue.' Also released was a 13-minute video entitled Just See the Lies of Harry Wu, which showed a visibly tired Wu being questioned in a police cell and interviews with doctors and patients who denied allegations in the 1994 documentary made by Wu and journalist Sue Lloyd-Roberts on the selling of prisoners' organs.
But, after examining the video, the BBC said Wu was 'clearly under duress' during a hostile cross-examination.
It said it was concerned for Wu's safety and that while he remained in Chinese custody it would not comment in detail on the allegations in the tape.
The Xinhua report seems designed to justify Wu's arrest after the United States and other Western countries have demanded his release. It also sets out to destroy Wu's reputation by saying he was justly given a 19-year prison sentence in 1960 for 'seducing girl students' and embezzlement.
One of the two documentaries produced by Wu contained shots of the graves of former labour camp inmates and leather garments and children's clothes allegedly made by prison labour for export.
