PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF PERU

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF PERU

Family planning programmes have achieved considerable success in Peru, President Alberto Fujimori said at a Headquarters press conference this morning.

President Fujimori, responding to a question about a "very strong campaign" by the Vatican to have the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994) watered down and changes made, said Peru's family planning programme had also improved the living conditions of many families. It had allowed them, for example, not to have children they did not want, he said.

The President also told correspondents that Peru had its traditions and cultural heritage, which the hierarchy of the Catholic Church recognized. People were completely free to choose any path they liked. But, given those traditions, the success of the family planning programme was considerable, he said.

A correspondent observed that the President in his speech before the General Assembly earlier today had mentioned entrenched attitudes towards family planning as a problem restraining progress. Did the President feel that governments had a responsibility to change those attitudes, and how should they go about doing it?

President Fujimori said: "I think it is not only a problem or responsibility of a government, but society itself". Governments had a principal responsibility to do so through education and promotion, so that society could also act.

Asked whether frequent statements he had made in Peru about the need for the provision of information on family planning had caused him problems, he said his Government's actions had been misinterpreted at the beginning. The public seemed to have thought that anti-conception programmes were mandatory. That was not so. The public was free to decide. People had the right to the right information about family planning.

On another subject, he was asked about his views on the recent Rio summit of leaders of the European Union and Latin American and Caribbean States. He said the summit was useful, and that opportunities existed for improving trade with Europe. In general, he thought European Union countries wanted to have stronger ties with the Latin American and the Caribbean region.

Asked about his views on the integration of Cuba into the Latin American and Caribbean community, he said Cuba's different system should not forbid it from that effort. The difference should be respected. There should not be any kind of intervention when a country took another type of government or ideology.

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