Peace Without Poison

Between 1968 and 1972, the British subjected the people of Kiribati to sterilizing vaccines andthe total fertility rate dropped from 7 to 5 children per woman. This backfired and the peoplelost trust in the NGO community and government health workers and the program of covertdepopulation was put on hold.Four years after Kiribati won its independence, thus in 1983, the program of covert depopulationwas reactivated, undoubtedly as a condition of aid from the international community. PresidentIeremia Tabai assumed office in 1983 and that means he is the man responsible for reintroducingcovert methods of depopulation in Kiribati. His successors - Teatao Teannaki (1991-1994),Teburoro Tito (1994-2003), and the incumbent president, Anote Tong, have stayed the course.Since independence, the total fertility rate has dropped from 5 to 2.6 children per woman, whichcannot possibly be explained by Kiribati’s low contraceptive prevalence rate of 22% or by itsnear-zero abortion rate.Kiribati is in stage three of the demographic transition.407 | P a g e