UNFPA ADMITS IT HAS NO WAY TO MONITOR CHINA'S FORCED ABORTION REGIME

LifeSite ^ | September 24, 2002

[nickcarraway]

Completely contradicts past UNFPA claims

WASHINGTON, September 24, 2002 (LSN.ca) - The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has admitted that it does not monitor the 32 counties in China where it operates, and therefore has no way of knowing if coercive abortion is as rampant in its 32 county programs as victims and human rights groups claim. The admission comes after UNFPA told U.S. authorities that no coercive abortion was taking place in a bid to ensure U.S. financial support for UNFPA's activities in China.

UNFPA is desperate to reinstate US funding for its programs after a Population Research Institute (PRI) investigation in China found evidence of UNFPA's collusion in China's coercive one-child family planning policy. PRI investigators were told by victims in Sihui state that they must undergo abortion and sterilization or face punishments of crippling fines, imprisonment and destruction of homes. See: < a href="http://www.pop.org/china/">http://www.pop.org/china/

"We do not monitor every county. We don't," Siri Tellier, the head of UNFPA's China program, said in a recent interview with Knight Ridder. Knight Ridder also reported that UNFPA "has no way to determine whether local officials have abandoned coercive practices." (See: "Small advocacy group influences American policy," Knight Ridder, Washington Bureau, Sept. 18, 2002.)

Yet four years ago, when its 32 "model county" program was set up, UNFPA and the Chinese Government assured the U.S. Congress that there would be no coercion; or, in their exact words, would "not engage in any form of coercion." UNFPA has in the past also claimed that its China program is one of the most monitored programs in the world.

Steve Mosher of PRI said, "One lie has led to another, as UNFPA is desperately trying to hide its complicity with forced abortion behind feigned ignorance, in a last-ditch effort to receive federal funding."