UNFPA Covers It Up, and Here’s the Evidence from PRI
For Immediate Release
January 18, 2002
Contact Scott Weinberg
(540) 622-5240
Steve Mosher, President of Population Research Institute (PRI), today extended a challenge to all reasonable journalists to view videotaped evidence of rampant coercion in the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) so-called model county family planning program in China (Sihui, Guangdong Province).
“We will overnight our videotaped evidence to any journalist in America who wants to see it,” Mosher said.
This first-hand evidence, presented at a hearing of the House Committee on International Relations last October, was obtained during a 4-day independent investigation of UNFPA operations in China, September 27-30, 2001.
During this independent investigation, investigators obtained audio- and video-taped testimonies from over two dozen victims and witnesses of coercion.
Often near or beyond the point of tears, victims testified that:
* Voluntary family planning does not exist in UNFPA’s “model program;” * Coercion in this UNFPA “model program” is as bad today as it ever has
been in the history of China’s one-child policy;
* Pregnancy permits are issued without exception, and non-compliance is
punished with coercive abortion, coercive sterilization, the destruction
of homes and property with jackhammers, imprisonment and fines.
Despite this first-hand evidence, UNFPA continues to falsely claim that women are free to determine for themselves the timing and spacing of their pregnancies in its China program. And, in response to congressional hearings, UNFPA launched an in-house “investigation,” during which most of UNFPA’s five day “junket” was spent at banquets and barbecues in Beijing with Chinese officials, and less than an hour was spent with women “interviewed” always in the presence of Chinese officials.
In addition to this cover-up, UNFPA officials have reacted angrily to the evidence, issuing blanket denials to officials, and continuing to falsely claim that UNFPA works only in regions in China where coercion does not exist.
More recently, UNFPA proponents attacked PRI for providing the congressional committee with testimonies of coercive abortion and coercive sterilization in UNFPA’s “model county” program, have attacked members of Congress for acknowledging the authenticity of the evidence; and, indirectly, have attacked the President of the United States for withholding UNFPA funding because of concerns raised over UNFPA support of coercion in China.
“It is breathtakingly cruel to women in China to scream denials in the face of first-hand evidence, simply to attempt to preserve funding,” Mosher said. “To deny such evidence, which is backed by many members of Congress, is to promote the wholesale assault against the rights of helpless women, and sanction the continuation of coercion in this UNFPA program in China. Any amount of US funding for UNFPA at this juncture would be wrong. It would lend support from US taxpayers to the coercive practices most Americans oppose.”
PRI’s full investigative report, titled “UNFPA, China and Coercive Family Planning,” along with videotaped evidence of coercion in UNFPA’s so-called model county program, may be obtained from PRI on request.
PRI President, Steve Mosher, was the first American social scientist permitted to conduct field research in the People’s Republic of China.
