Friday, November 24, 2006
U.N. Exaggerates Death Totals
The Iraqi government hit out at the United Nations on Wednesday, accusing it of exaggerating and "misleading the world" with a report saying that a record 3,709 civilians were killed in violence in October.
The health minister gave no alternative number but said the real figure was about a quarter of that, and suggested U.N. officials obtained their data "illegally" from his subordinates.
"These statistics are not accurate," Health Minister Ali al-Shimeri told state television's prime-time news bulletin.
The U.N. stood by its statistics, saying they came from the Health Ministry itself and were consistent with past findings.
Ministers are under growing pressure from Iraqis and from Washington to curb sectarian violence, not least by reining in militias that are nominally loyal to parties in government.
Last week, officials argued publicly over the fate of dozens of civil servants abducted from a ministry building by suspected Shi'ite gunmen. Shi'ite leaders dismissed assertions from the Sunni minister that dozens of his staff were unaccounted for.
"The Operations Room at the Health Ministry and the Central Morgue did not give these statistics to the U.N.," Shimeri said. "They are eager to go to unreliable sources in the Health Ministry, through a doctor or a nurse, but this is not accurate.
"They want to mislead the world with these exaggerated figures. There is no figure of 7,000 for the past two months. If you want to talk about real figures, then they are a quarter of this figure," the minister said.
However, the United Nations' chief human rights official in Iraq, Gianni Magazzeni, told Reuters: "The data we've received are from the Ministry of Health and the Medico-Legal Institute and are consistent with data we've received before."
The U.N., which many Iraqis still resent for its role in enforcing sanctions under Saddam Hussein, adds ministry figures for hospitals to those from the Institute - the Baghdad morgue.
"Our methodology has not changed," Magazzeni said, noting that Shimeri recently told reporters that up to 150,000 Iraqis had been killed since the U.S. invasion - a figure that would put the monthly death toll since early 2003 at over 3,000.
Shimeri has dismissed an estimate by statisticians that some 650,000 civilians may have been killed since the invasion. The United States gives no figures for civilian casualties in Iraq.
The United Nations concedes gathering data is hard. It has had few staff in Iraq since its main office was bombed in 2003.
A month ago, it said Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office had banned the Health Ministry and morgue from giving it data, saying this would be controlled by the premier's office.
An official in the Maliki's media office declined to give any figures on Wednesday and referred inquiries to Shimeri.
The minister is a supporter of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia is blamed by Sunnis for death squad violence. It is a charge Sadr, a key ally of Maliki, insistently denies.
Shimeri's apparent estimate of less than 1,000 violent deaths in October is at odds with a figure given to Reuters by a source at the morgue, who said last week it alone received about 1,600 bodies in October, about 1,350 of whom died violently.
During October, Reuters quoted police and other officials detailing the deaths of over 1,150 Iraqis who were apparently civilians. Iraq's chaos means many other deaths go unreported.
The Iraqi government hit out at the United Nations on Wednesday, accusing it of exaggerating and "misleading the world" with a report saying that a record 3,709 civilians were killed in violence in October.
The health minister gave no alternative number but said the real figure was about a quarter of that, and suggested U.N. officials obtained their data "illegally" from his subordinates.
"These statistics are not accurate," Health Minister Ali al-Shimeri told state television's prime-time news bulletin.
The U.N. stood by its statistics, saying they came from the Health Ministry itself and were consistent with past findings.
Ministers are under growing pressure from Iraqis and from Washington to curb sectarian violence, not least by reining in militias that are nominally loyal to parties in government.
Last week, officials argued publicly over the fate of dozens of civil servants abducted from a ministry building by suspected Shi'ite gunmen. Shi'ite leaders dismissed assertions from the Sunni minister that dozens of his staff were unaccounted for.
"The Operations Room at the Health Ministry and the Central Morgue did not give these statistics to the U.N.," Shimeri said. "They are eager to go to unreliable sources in the Health Ministry, through a doctor or a nurse, but this is not accurate.
"They want to mislead the world with these exaggerated figures. There is no figure of 7,000 for the past two months. If you want to talk about real figures, then they are a quarter of this figure," the minister said.
However, the United Nations' chief human rights official in Iraq, Gianni Magazzeni, told Reuters: "The data we've received are from the Ministry of Health and the Medico-Legal Institute and are consistent with data we've received before."
The U.N., which many Iraqis still resent for its role in enforcing sanctions under Saddam Hussein, adds ministry figures for hospitals to those from the Institute - the Baghdad morgue.
"Our methodology has not changed," Magazzeni said, noting that Shimeri recently told reporters that up to 150,000 Iraqis had been killed since the U.S. invasion - a figure that would put the monthly death toll since early 2003 at over 3,000.
Shimeri has dismissed an estimate by statisticians that some 650,000 civilians may have been killed since the invasion. The United States gives no figures for civilian casualties in Iraq.
The United Nations concedes gathering data is hard. It has had few staff in Iraq since its main office was bombed in 2003.
A month ago, it said Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office had banned the Health Ministry and morgue from giving it data, saying this would be controlled by the premier's office.
An official in the Maliki's media office declined to give any figures on Wednesday and referred inquiries to Shimeri.
The minister is a supporter of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia is blamed by Sunnis for death squad violence. It is a charge Sadr, a key ally of Maliki, insistently denies.
Shimeri's apparent estimate of less than 1,000 violent deaths in October is at odds with a figure given to Reuters by a source at the morgue, who said last week it alone received about 1,600 bodies in October, about 1,350 of whom died violently.
During October, Reuters quoted police and other officials detailing the deaths of over 1,150 Iraqis who were apparently civilians. Iraq's chaos means many other deaths go unreported.
