NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      WASHINGTON, AUG 3 (ZENIT).- Today the Population Research Institute (PRI) released additional evidence confirming the partnership between the UNFPA and the Yugoslavian government to target and reduce the Kosovar population. Officials in the Serbian government, including Milosevic himself, have openly admitted their intent to reduce the Kosovar ethnic population.

      "The state must find a way ... to limit or forbid the enormous birthrate in Kosovo," Rada Trajkovic, Serbian Minister for Family Affairs, said in a recent report on Yugoslavian demographics.

      At the same time, Stirling Scruggs, head of UNFPA's external communications, confirmed that UNFPA was invited by Milosevic's regime to specifically target the Kosovar population. "We were invited into Kosovo by the Yugoslavian government to conduct a needs assessment and follow up later with regular programs," Scruggs stated in the July-August 1999 edition of "PRI Review."

      Steven Mosher, president of PRI, said, "The UNFPA is in complicity with Milosevic's 'stealth' ethnic cleansing campaign against the Kosovar population. The UNFPA has admitted that it is working hand-in-glove with the Milosevic regime, which the world knows has recently attempted the forceful extermination of its Kosovar minority. Thanks to the UNFPA, Milosevic will now achieve his aim of reducing the ethnic Albanian population of Kosovo by other means. The targeting of Kosovar women and families will continue, aided by U.S. tax dollars, as the UNFPA engages in what might be called 'silent ethnic cleansing.' "

      The UNFPA, on the other hand, has denied any involvement with Milosevic's campaign to reduce the numbers of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. In a press release dated July 29, 1999, it attacked the PRI for providing information it described as "false," and spoke of its commitment to "reproductive health."

      Steve Mosher was quick to reply. "Anyone who thinks the UNFPA is concerned with 'reproductive health' should think again. The UNFPA is not interested in healthy reproductive systems, but in ones that have been disabled by abortion, sterilization, and contraception. The organization's very name betrays its purpose. We are talking about the U.N. Population Fund here, not the U.N. Reproductive Health Fund."

      The UNFPA's "regular programs" include abortion-inducing "morning after" pills, originally shipped into the region for alleged rape victims, along with shipments of crude manual vacuum aspirators, which PRI has confirmed will be used for abortions by trained NGOs. ZE99080306

Articles provided through Catholic World News and Church News at Noticias Eclesiales and International Dossiers, Daily Dispatches and Features at ZENIT International News Agency. CWN, NE and ZENIT are not affiliated with the Daily CATHOLIC but provide this service via e-mail to the Daily CATHOLIC Monday through Friday.