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BEIJING, Sept. 21 -- Officials in Shandong Province were sacked and
detained for forcing pregnant women to undergo abortions and for sterilizing
couples.
The dismissals and detentions were seen as a government push to improve
official accountability.
Yu Xuejun, spoke
sman for the National Population and Family Planning
Commission, said the authorities had launched an investigation after receiving
complaints of forced abortions and sterilizations by family planning officials
in Linyi City, Shandong Province this year.
"According to the results of a preliminary investigation, some persons
concerned in a few counties and townships under jurisdiction of Linyi did commit
practices that violated the law while conducting family planning work," Yu said
on the commission's Web site.
"Currently, the responsible persons have been removed from their posts.
Some of them are being investigated for liabilities and some have been
detained," Yu said without giving a figure for officials sacked and detained.
Yu urged commission staff to learn a lesson from the case and "correct any
infringements on citizens' rights."
China, now the world's most populous nation with 1.3 billion people,
adopted the family planning policy more than two decades ago to slow down the
population growth.
Tuesday's admission of official wrongdoing came after a blind man surnamed
Chen accused Linyi officials of forcing couples with two children to be
sterilized and forcing women pregnant with a third child to undergo abortions.
(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)
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