UNFPA dismisses Kosovo `pill' claims

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has rejected allegations made by right wing Catholic groups in the US that it assisted ethnic cleansing in Kosovo by providing rape victims with the morning-after pill.

Speaking in Dublin ahead of the publication today of the UNFPA's annual report, Ms Corrie Shanahan, a spokeswoman for the body, said the pill had been available in Kosovo and Albania for many years and there was no question of it being introduced with the UN's arrival. "It was not an issue at all for the Kosovars."

Ms Shanahan, a native of Dublin who has just returned from Kosovo, warned that trauma and malnourishment arising from the conflict were continuing to have an impact on women's health, causing premature births and miscarriages.

One survey has shown that since June, more than 15 per cent of births in the town of Pec have been premature since June. Further research showed that almost half of all premature infants died.

Maternity clinics were now severely over-stretched with Pristina hospital delivering up to 30 babies a day, said Ms Shanahan.

"The main difficulties are the lack of equipment and the lack of skills among Albanians, resulting from the fact that many of them would have previously been excluded from the state health system."

The UNFPA report is being released 20 days before it estimates the world's population will reach 6 billion.

Ms Shanahan said that while population growth was slower and family sizes had halved in the past 30 years, more needed to be done. The key to slowing population growth was increasing reproductive choice, she said, noting that "350 million women do not have the means to decide the size and spacing of their families".

She added: "Nearly 600,000 women die each year as a result of being pregnant, and 70,000 die each year from unsafe abortion." In many countries, reproduction was the greatest danger to human health.