Almost 300,000 Peruvian Women Forcibly Sterilized Over 10 Years

LIMA, Peru, SEPT. 7, 2001 (Zenit.org).- Close to 300,000 Peruvian women were forcibly sterilized under former President Alberto Fujimori´s government, with help from the United States and the United Nations, an official disclosed.

Victor Velarde, president of the Health Commission of the Peruvian Congress, made the announcement, Liberación newspaper reported Wednesday.

The Voluntary Anti-Conception Surgical program, implemented by Fujimori´s government in the 1990s, was virtually compulsive, as thousands of women from rural areas were forced to accept this operation, in part for lack of information.

A parliamentary subcommittee will now investigate the matter. Last week, Peruvian Health Minister Luis Solari said that he found manuscript documents of Fujimori which allegedly ordered the sterilizations.

Victor Velarde announced that the inquiries will extend to three former Health Ministers -- Marino Costa Bauer, Eduardo Yong Motta and Alejandro Aguinaga -- who were in office when the problem worsened.

A U.S. congressional investigation revealed last year that USAID, an agency of the federal government, and the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) were seriously implicated in this multimillion-dollar eugenic sterilization program in this nation of 27 million.