Iraq PM Blocks Civilian Death Toll Release

Memo: Healthy Ministry Told To Withhold Casualty Numbers From U.N., Despite Confirming Their Accuracy

(AP)  Iraq's prime minister has barred the Health Ministry from releasing alarming casualty figures that showed violence in Iraq was killing 100 civilians a day and provided a rare insight into the worsening sectarian conflict, according to an internal U.N. memo obtained Friday.

The memo from top U.N. envoy for Iraq Ashraf Qazi to several senior U.N. officials said Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's office had twice instructed the ministry not to release the numbers to the United Nations and that his office would now be responsible for releasing any such information.

The U.N. mission in Iraq had published the Health Ministry's numbers in its bimonthly reports about the human rights situation in Iraq. The figures were seen as one of the rare reliable indicators of the civilian suffering in Iraq — and U.N. officials even suspected they have underreported the actual number of civilian deaths.

The figures gained widespread international attention in July, when they showed that some 6,000 Iraqi civilians had died over the previous two months, or about 100 people a day, the victims of assassinations, bombings, kidnappings, and torture. In the next report, released in September, the civilian death figures painted an even grimmer picture, showing civilian deaths had risen to an all-time high of 6,599 for July and August.

In the memo, Qazi said Al-Maliki's spokesman had told the U.N. mission, known by its acronym UNAMI, that the Health Ministry figures were overstated.

Qazi said, however, that Al-Maliki had earlier confirmed the figures during an official visit to London. He said the government decision "may affect" his mission's ability to report on civilian deaths in the country.

"UNAMI figures were never publicly contested by the government and may have contributed to an increased international awareness regarding the severe consequences that the conflict in Iraq is having on civilians," Qazi wrote in the memo.

The contents of the document were first reported in Friday's Washington Post.

Qazi, contacted in Baghdad on Friday, would not comment on the memo.

Iraq's deputy U.N. Ambassador Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi said the change was meant to make sure the casualty count was as accurate as possible. He denied the government was trying to mask the reality on the ground in Iraq, saying it would be impossible to do that.

"The security situation in Iraq is what it is, and the people of Iraq are aware of that," Istrabadi said. "It is not a situation whereby manipulating numbers, you can fool people into thinking it's one thing where it's another. It may rankle some bureaucratic feathers but I don't think it makes any difference."

The numbers released to the U.N. were based on two sets of data from the Health Ministry. One figure was collected from the Medico Legal Institute in Baghdad, which tallied the number of unidentified civilians killed violently and brought to the Baghdad morgue.

The other figure, maintained by the Health Ministry itself, recorded the number of people violently killed brought to hospitals in the entire country except for the Kurdistan region.

Other casualty figures for Iraq have varied widely. Earlier this month, researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad released a study saying nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died in the war that began in 2003. That was far higher than other estimates, and President Bush has said he did not believe the numbers.

Qazi's note mentioned those figures and said his office hoped to comment on them soon.

"It must be noted that increased restrictions on the release of official data concerning victims takes place at a time of increasing media attention and the release of scientific data on the subject," the memo said.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric refused to comment on the contents of the note because it was private. However, he said one of the U.N. mission's specific tasks was to report on the situation in the country.

"The U.N. has enjoyed extensive cooperation with the Iraqi Ministry of Health and the Medico Legal Institute in Baghdad and we very much hope that that cooperation will continue," Dujarric said.

[xfredmenzies]

These are not the droids you're looking for.

[pakaal]

We keep getting figures from sources on the ground in Iraq that don't match up with figures from officials. Could this have something to do with the fact that the US military is now excluding cases including casualties from car bombs and missile strikes (!) from the lists?

The Bush administration can dissemble as much as they want, it only makes our informed public all the more sure that things are being terribly mishandled in Iraq, that things are getting worse, not better, and that "stay the course" is useless as a strategy - we need real solutions not meaningless rhetoric.

[webdepot]

*** good thing Al-Maliki has Bushy as such a great tutor in how to keep the masses ignorant of what's going on...
just bury the facts ma'am... just bury the facts.

[webdepot]

Hey CBS... this is totally ridiculous... your filter kicks out the word d-a-r-n....
sheesh... you sure as he_l have been spooked by the goody goody police, haven't you???

[bluestardad]

What a horses hind end, if he had to serve in combat he would never have considered putting us in Iraq in the first place. These People running this war I would not trust to make me coffee.
Cut and Run is honorable compared to Send and Not Serve, Stay and be Stupid, Chide and be a Chicken Hawk, or Preach values and be a Pedophile. Remember there is a special gift for those of you who vote Republican, Mr. Foley%u2019s Special %u201CPage Probe Soap on a Rope%u201D guaranteed to help you achieve Mission Accomplished, especially made for those of you who are having trouble Staying the Course.

Special Note: This product will be discretely delivered in plain brown paper wrapping complete with plausible deniability and I do not recall disclaimer instructions. If you act right now you will get a free meeting with that Chief of Chicken Hawks, Pontiff of Pork, that great Salivating Swine, Rush Linbaugh.

I don't trust the Iraqi Government any more than I'd trust Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice etc etc.

The true number of Iraqi Civilian deaths will probably (and unfortunately) never be known.

But the one thing you can guarantee is that it will be higher than either the US or Iraqi Government cares to admit.

Both should be tried for their crimes against humanity.

[alphaa10-2009]

Bush found the Johns Hopkins study as reported in Lancet to be "questionable"-- what a laugh.

Bush is the one whose pronouncements have been found not merely questionable, but outright lies.

[nativewoman]

Posted by xfredmenzies at 07:25 PM : Oct 20, 2006

Move along...move along.

[phil-in-fin]

To mcdazz:

"The true number of Iraqi Civilian deaths will probably (and unfortunately) never be known."

Exactly.

Just like when Saddam was in power ... "Mission Accomplished."

[bluestardad]

Do not expect any type of serious policy change, redeployment of troops, ending of the Iraq war, shifting troops to Afghanistan or anything that remotely resembles common sense from this Administration%u2019s review of Iraq policies or the Baker Commission. Time and time again the American people have held out hope that this Administration will do the right thing and time and time again we have been let down. From Afghanistan, Iraq to Louisiana this administration%u2019s policies are not based on common sense or the will of the people who elected them. President Bush has been described that "He's not somebody who gets jumpy at polls." That translates to %u201CI do not care what the People who elected me think%u201D. But that is OK now too because he has exposed his true self to the American People and we are going to dethrone this administration and those who supported it starting November 7, 2006. The problem is how many more people will die because of its ineptitude before we the American People can intervene?

[ezjr660]

Why aren't all these deaths front page material on all of the newspapers in the world? This is a tremendous amount of collateral damage just to prove that a person was right and justified in what he done, that was to topple Saddam. the price was just tooo high. Especially when their were other options available. the US just could had an unannounce intellegent airstrike against Saddam, just like they did with Khadafi.
Let's just face it, the U.S. was warned about the fallout that could occur in Iraq, and now that it is happening, the U.S. leaders are still trying to brainwash and hyptmotise the citizens into believing that progress in Iraq is "GREAT!"
As U.S. citizens we are all to blame because we backed our leader but did not realize that our leader would do a skimpy and sloppy job with an irrational game (war)plan,and without an exit strategy.
As U.S. citizens we must take responsibility for the casualties that occurred during the Shock and Awe Capaign; casualties during the election of the post Iraq government; and casualties during the the current civil unrest (revolution) that is ocurring as we speak; also for thoses who been wounded during the war; for those who lost their homes, for those 900000 people who are fleeing as refugees; and to compensate the over 600000 innocent victim's families who lost (bread winners)as a result of the President making policy decisions that directly affected their lives.We must pray to Jesus Christ to bring this calamity to an end.

[jhindson1]

More hiding the truth. Thousands of citizens of Iraq have died in a war started through outright lies. (read Woodward's "State of Denial")

The war is sustained by Bush by inciting fear of terrorists and the "war on terrorism".

Insurgents are not terrorists - they are fighters in a civil war (Sunni vs ***** vs Kurd and tribe vs tribe) and want the USA out of the way.

There are some Al Qeada terrorists there but they are opportunists taking advantage of a "fish bowl of chaos" to kill Americans.

Meanwhile, trillions of dollars are being funelled to war profiteers and America is killing thousands of innocent civilians while fighting the non-terrorist civil war participants that just want America out of their country and out of the way.

Separate the American casualties between Al Qeada vs insurgents (civil war) and most of the casulaties will be from the civil war.

America's finest are dying for nothing trying to referee a civil war in a country was invaded under a lie.

Meanwhile no one is held accountable.