Iraq 'hiding true casualty figures'
From correspondents in Paris
10/20/06 "The
Telegraph" -- -- THE Iraqi Government has told
medical authorities not to reveal to the UN the true extent of
civilian casualties in the country's conflict, French newspaper
Le Monde said today.
The daily quoted a telegram sent by the head of the UN mission
in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, to headquarters in New York, in which he
said: "This development risks damaging the capacity of the UN's
Assistance Mission to report the number of civilians killed or
injured."
Since July 2005 the UN has used data provided by Baghdad's
Forensic Institute and the Iraqi health ministry to form an
estimate. The estimate "was certainly imperfect but an indicator
nonetheless of the growing number of civilian victims", the
telegram said.
The latest report said that 3590 civilians died a violent death
in July and 3009 in August, figures which it said were
"unprecedented".
But the telegram quoted by Le Monde said that on September 21,
one day after publication of the report, Iraqi Prime Minister
Nuri al-Maliki wrote to the health ministry with instructions
not to disclose more figures.
In an investigation published in British medical weekly The
Lancet earlier this month, US and Iraq specialists estimated
that more than 600,000 civilians died a violent death between
March 2003 and July 2006.
US President George W. Bush questioned the investigation's
findings.
Copyright 2006 News Limited.
Click on "comments" below to read or post comments
Comment Guidelines
Be succinct, constructive and relevant to the story. We encourage engaging, diverse and meaningful commentary. Do not include personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and emails. Comments falling outside our guidelines – those including personal attacks and profanity – are not permitted.
See our complete Comment Policy and use this link to notify us if you have concerns about a comment. We’ll promptly review and remove any inappropriate postings.