dje pata nje interviste pune tek United Nations Population Fund e
per here te pare degjova se puna e tyre ne Kosove na qenka kritizuar e denoncuar nga disa grupe per bashkpunim me Milloshevicin per te ulur popullaten Kosovare. Kjo dege e UN merret me problemet e popullates e nderto dhe u ofron grave ndihme me problemet e shendetit e riprodhimit. Un se kisha degjuar kete pune dhe kur me pyeti ai qe po intervistonte per qendrimin e Shqiptareve ne kete ceshtje un mbeta si e shashtisur se sdija gje. a mund te me tregoni me shume per te dhe cqendrim mbahet nga Shqiptaret. Do doja qe kur te filloja pune atje te isha me e informuar. flmd katka

KOSOVO: U.S.-BASED GROUP SEEKS TO DEFAME UNFPA

- a response to disinformation spread by Population Research Institute

New York, 29 July -- The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) today denounced a "fact-finding" report published by a United States-based anti-family planning group, on emergency reproductive health care provided by UNFPA in and around Kosovo, in Albania and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FYR).

UNFPA said that the publisher, Population Research Institute (PRI), has a history of disseminating false and misleading information to the media, the United States Administration and Congress, and that the latest attempt to defame UNFPA was an "outrageous lie and a half-baked attack on important humanitarian assistance".

PRI alleges that [the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slobodan] "Milosevic and UNFPA ‘team up to target Kosovars’", and that the goal is to "engage in ethnic cleansing by reducing the Kosovars’ high birth rate". The group also says that "Kosovars are uninterested in reproductive health supplies", that these supplies threaten "scarce room on the planes for badly needed food and basic health supplies", and that UNFPA supplies abortion services.

"These allegations are untrue and fly in the face of truth, justice and human dignity," said coordinator of UNFPA’s activities in emergency situations, Pamela Delargy, just back from the Balkans.

"In fact, these allegations are dangerous to Kosovar women - if UNFPA is impeded in its work in Kosovo, Kosovar women will be deprived of life-saving services. The disinformation has been reprinted in a Kosovo newspaper and could have an impact on United Nations operations in the region," Ms. Delargy said.

"This group suggests that refugees do not want their babies safely delivered. That they do not want emergency obstetric care, prenatal care or equipment to resuscitate mothers and babies. That is not a sane thing to say," Ms. Delargy said. "UNFPA conducted a needs assessment that clearly indicated that the refugee women had next to no access to reproductive health care, and that they did want it," she said, responding to a claim by PRI that UNFPA has "fabricated" demand for reproductive health care.

"Of course, no urgently needed humanitarian aid supplies were pushed off planes to accommodate UNFPAs supplies. Emergency reproductive health supplies are, in fact, life-saving humanitarian aid that were needed by the refugees in and around Kosovo," Ms. Delargy said. She added that "the supplies are given to health facilities to be administered by certified medical staff, not to individual refugees as alleged by PRI."

She also pointed out that UNFPA does not in any way promote, support, fund or provide abortion services, although abortion is legal in Albania and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. "We have serious concerns about the high prevalence of abortion in Albania and Kosovo. This indicates that women have no access to safe and affordable family planning services to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Access to good information and services would actually dramatically diminish the numbers of women seeking abortions. That is what UNFPA is doing".

"Women and men who do use family planning need continued provision of their supplies," Ms. Delargy said. "UNFPA believes that women that are deprived of their normal health provider in a refugee situation should not be forced into an unwanted pregnancy that will likely end up in an abortion. Refugees, as well as all other people, have an internationally agreed right to basic health services, including reproductive health."

UNFPA’s approach has been to work through local health systems, in order to meet the urgent needs of refugees, while at the same time strengthening national capacity. Based on an assessment mission, the Fund has sent emergency reproductive health supplies that include:

Individual clean delivery kits for use where medical facilities are unavailable. The kit includes soap, plastic sheeting, pictorial instructions and a razor blade for cutting newborns’ umbilical cord;

Delivery equipment - for use by trained personnel to deal with both normal and complicated deliveries, as well as referral level equipment to be used in hospitals to perform Caesarean sections and to resuscitate mothers and babies;

Equipment for suturing cervical and vaginal tears and performing vaginal examinations;

Sexually transmitted diseases (STD) kit - intended to diagnose and treat STDs and explain how to prevent contraction;

Safe blood transfusion equipment;

Supplies for treating miscarriages or unsafe abortions;

Rape treatment kit - antibiotics for treating injuries and emergency contraception;

Contraceptives, including oral and injectable methods, condoms and IUDs.
Ms. Delargy emphasized that UNFPA is working along with other United Nations agencies in Kosovo and is a cooperative partner in the health sector under the leadership of the World Health Organization (WHO). As in all other programmes, UNFPA strictly adheres to internationally agreed human rights conventions and standards, and to the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo in 1994.

UNFPA is in Kosovo as part of the United Nations humanitarian and development effort. The United Nations is setting up an administration in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo under Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999).

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