Peace Without Poison

6 November 2014Peter MutharikaPresident of Malawipsegov@opc.gov.mw, foreign.affairs@foreignaffairs.gov.mwdoccentre@malawi.net, defence@defence.gov.mwPresident Mutharika,Re: immediate cessation of covert depopulation measuresMalawi joined the Global Depopulation Policy in 1990 but did not begin to sterilize its ruralpopulation with injectable contraceptives and to induce abortion with Misoprostol until 2008when the Ministry of Health approved their administration by community workers with nomedical training and free of charge, as part and parcel of the National Reproductive HealthStrategy 2006-2010. Until 2008, the people in the countryside, where most Malawians live, hadcontinued to procreate and multiply at natural rates, which is why the total fertility rate in ruralareas declined only modestly from 7 children per woman to 6 today. In the cities, where thepopulation control program began officially in 1999 (but unofficially in 1991), as soon as theNational Reproductive Health Strategy 1999-2004 was drafted, the total fertility rate hasdeclined from 7 to 4 children per woman.Unhappy with the “weak community participation” in emergency obstetric care, the euphemismthe government of Malawi uses for its population control program whose official justification isto reduce maternal and neonatal mortality, the government of Malawi has revised its Action Planin 2007 in order to “strengthen family planning service” and increase the contraceptiveprevalence rate from 40% to 60% so as to reach replacement level fertility as soon as possible.To accomplish this mammoth population control goal all institutions of state, civil society andthe private sector have been engaged, but the bulk of the work necessary to sterilize thepopulation is done by three agencies: the Ministry of Health (MOH) does 60%, the ChristianHealth Association of Malawi (CHAM) does 37%, and the Ministry of Local Government does1%, while the remaining 2% are done by the private sector, the Army and the Police.Given that Malawi’s population has grown from 2.8 million in 1950 to 16 million today, a 500%increase; that the population is projected to increase an additional 300% by 2050, when it willreach 50 million; that Malawi is already one of the poorest countries in the world with a GDP of$857 per capita; that 65% of the population is defined as poor and unable to meet their dailyneeds; and that half of all Malawians are food insecure, one can understand why the governmenthas had to begin interfering with the reproductive freedom of its people.483 | P a g e