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Stephen Mosher Expresses Serious Concerns About Canadian Bishops' D&P Investigation

Says, "You can't let the agency (D&P) that has committed the abuses potentially be in charge of the review"

By Steve Jalsevac

WASHINGTON, D.C, May 29, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Stephen Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute, in a spontaneous interview on May 8 in Washington D.C., expressed serious concerns to LifeSiteNews about the Canadian bishops' investigation of Development and Peace funding of allegedly pro-abortion groups.

In the 80’s, under president Reagan, former Stanford researcher Mosher testified before congress about the human rights abuses taking place in China. As a consequence of his evidence the United States cut off funding to the United Nations Population Fund, the aim of which is to reduce the worldwide population, and which had then given China $50 million to support its forced one-child policy.

Mosher is especially famed for his repeated efforts of almost singlehandedly exposing China's brutal forced abortion policy. The amount withheld from UNFPA has now totalled well over $200 million. Mosher has proven to be exceptionally skilled in exposing anti-life policies and actions hidden by governments and other agencies in developing nations. The most recent focus of PRI investigations of hidden anti-life activities has been on Latin America. This sparked Mosher's response to some comments made about the Development and Peace controversy and the investigation of the Mexican groups.

Following is the text of the May 8 conversation during which a few Latin American pro-life leaders were also present and who concurred with Mosher's remarks:

LifeSiteNews: Catholic News Service reported that Development and Peace head  Michael Casey was confident that as a result of the investigation of the organization by a Canadian bishops' team D&P would not be found guilty of wrongdoing. Considering the evidence we have found and published, we find that attitude astonishing.

Mosher: It's an official tour and everything is choreographed. You know the Chinese are very good at that sort of thing. If money is at stake these people will only show the bishops what they want them to see.

If the two bishops go down with the head of Development and Peace, then he's going to hide the dirty linen. I mean, he is not going to hang out the dirty laundry for them to see. He's going to cover up. That's institutional behaviour in general.

I don't know anything about Development and Peace, but I do know that in China when the UN Population Fund sent its own investigators to find out whether or not they were collaborating with forced abortion and forced sterilization, they went where the Chinese officials wanted them to go. They saw what the Chinese officials wanted them to see and they reported what the Chinese officials wanted them to report.

And when the State Department sent a delegation into China the same thing happened. In fact a State Department delegation member said privately to me, "Do you think we'll really be able to find out anything." I said, "No, you will be hand fed information by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by the State Family Planning Commission and you will only be able to talk to people they've already vetted, they've already cleared, where everything is scripted." I said, "you will find out nothing new" and they found out almost nothing new.

So, in this case, you have to have an independent investigation. You can't let the agency that has committed the abuses potentially be in charge of the review. You have to send in an outside group with no axes to grind to find out objectively what the situation is on the ground. And unless you do that you are never going to be able to find out the truth.

LifeSiteNews: What type of group would you send to do that?

Mosher: Well, surely, the Catholic bishops' conference has outside auditors that it uses to check its books. It aught to contract with some outside group to go down and investigate these programs quietly, without notifying the recipient groups in Mexico and anywhere else about what's happening and just make inquiries and to see if these charges are confirmed or can be disproven.

Bishops are very busy men. They're not trained investigators. They don't have the time to go down and check the records carefully of these organizations.

I don't think that sending Development and Peace staff and two bishops down to Mexico is going to produce anything but a whitewash.

Related LifeSiteNews Reports:

Canada's Largest Catholic Newspaper Calls for Open Investigation into Development and Peace
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09041412.html

Vancouver Diocesan Editorial: "Writing Could be on the Wall" for Development and Peace
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042008.html

See articles about Stephen Mosher:

China Labels Stanford Researcher "International spy" For Exposing Forced Abortion Policy
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/aug/050826a.html

Visit by UN Human Rights Observers to Communist China Likely to be Whitewash
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/aug/05083002.html

World Bank to Continue Promoting Abortion in Developing Nations After US Drops Opposition
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/may/07050205.html

Stephen Mosher asserts that forcing population control on poor nations via financial pressure is "economic assassination"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/apr/07042509.html

See the LifeSiteNews Feature Page, Development and Peace, Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups 2009
http://www.lifesitenews.com/features/DevelopmentPeace/

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