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Iraqi Death Toll Rises Above 100 Per Day, U.N. Says
By Kirk Semple, July 19, 2006, New York Times
BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 18 - An average of more than 100 civilians per day were killed in Iraq last month, the United Nations reported Tuesday, registering the highest official monthly tally of violent deaths since the fall of Baghdad.
The death toll, drawn from Iraqi government agencies, was the most precise measurement of civilian deaths provided by any government organization since the invasion and represented a substantial increase over the figures in daily news media reports.
United Nations officials said Tuesday that the number of violent deaths had climbed steadily since at least last summer. During the first six months of this year, the civilian death toll jumped more than 77 percent, from 1,778 in January to 3,149 in June, the organization said.
This sharp upward trend reflected the dire security situation in Iraq as sectarian violence has worsened and Iraqi and American government forces have been unable to stop it.
In its report, the United Nations said that 14,338 civilians had died violently in Iraq in the first six months of the year.
United Nations officials said they had based their figures on tallies provided by two Iraqi agencies: the Ministry of Health, which tracks violent deaths recorded at hospitals around the country; and Baghdad's central morgue, where unidentified bodies are delivered, a vast majority of which met violent deaths.
Each agency issues death warrants for the bodies it receives, government officials say, and there is no overlap between the two populations of victims.
The United States government and military have not made public any specific figures on Iraqi civilian casualties or said whether they are keeping count. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq published the new tallies in its bimonthly human rights report, issued Tuesday. It was the first time that the United Nations had published combined death statistics from the two agencies.
According to the report, 1,778 civilians were killed in January, 2,165 in February, 2,378 in March, 2,284 in April, 2,669 in May and 3,149 in June.
The totals represent an enormous increase over figures published by media organizations and by nongovernmental organizations that track these trends.
The Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, an independent Web site that uses news reports to do its tallies, reported that at least 738 died in June, and another 969 the previous month.
The United Nations report said that in recent months, ''the overwhelming majority of casualties were reported in Baghdad.''
The capital has been the focus of raging sectarian violence, particularly since the bombing in late February of a major Shiite shrine in Samarra.
Gianni Magazzeni, chief of the human rights office of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, praised Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for his efforts to address human rights concerns ''more forcefully'' than his predecessors.
PAUL VON ZIELBAUER CONTRIBUTED REPORTING FOR THIS ARTICLE FROM BAGHDAD, AND IRAQI EMPLOYEES OF THE NEW YORK TIMES FROM FALLUJA, KIRKUK, KUFA AND MOSUL.
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http://zfacts.com/p/455.html | 01/18/12 07:25 GMT
Modified: Sun, 29 Oct 2006 21:21:06 GMT
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