|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
|
January 17th,
2007 - Iraqi Death Toll Exceeded 34,000 in ‘06, U.N. Says |
|
Iraqi Death Toll Exceeded
34,000 in '06, U.N. Says By Sabrina Tavernise New York Times January 17, 2007 Baghdad, Jan. 16 - The
United Nations reported Tuesday that more than 34,000 Iraqis were killed in
violence last year, a figure that represents the first comprehensive annual
count of civilian deaths and a vivid measure of the failure of the Iraqi
government and American military to provide security. The report was the first
attempt at hand-counting individual deaths for an entire year. It was
compiled using reports from morgues, hospitals and municipal authorities
across Iraq, and was nearly three times higher than an estimate for 2006
compiled from Iraqi ministry tallies by The Associated Press earlier this
month. Numbers of civilian deaths
have become the central indicator for the trajectory of the war, and are
extremely delicate for both Iraqi and American officials. Both follow the
tallies, but neither will release them. An Iraqi government
spokesman called the count exaggerated, and said that it had been obtained
using “incorrect sources.” Though the government closely tracks deaths
through the Interior and Health Ministries, he said it did not have a system
in place for compiling a comprehensive figure. Despite the criticism from
the Iraqi government, the United Nations said it used only official sources,
most of which relied on counts of death certificates. A vast majority of
Iraqi deaths are registered, at least to local authorities, so that Iraqis
can prove inheritance and receive government compensation. Some deaths still
go unreported, however, and the United Nations tally may in fact be lower
than the true number of deaths nationwide. As death tolls have risen,
the lack of security has become the single most important barrier to success
of the American enterprise here. The numbers of dead, at least at the Baghdad
morgue, are running at double their number in 2005. Underscoring the challenge,
even as the United Nations released its figure - 34,452 deaths, a number that
does not yet include the December totals from all provinces - at least 70
more Iraqis were killed on Tuesday when a series of bomb blasts struck a largely
Shiite university in northeast Baghdad. After almost four years of
war, in which Americans have focused largely on fighting an elusive enemy -
Sunni militants and, more recently, Shiite death squads - military commanders
say keeping Iraqis alive has now moved to the center of the new strategy
proposed by President Bush. For many Iraqis, the pledge
comes too late. The numbers reported by the United Nations were more than
tenfold the number of American deaths for the entire war. As previous
attempts to secure Baghdad have failed, tens of thousands of middle-class
Iraqis have given up and fled the country. Those who remain are becoming
increasingly radicalized as the violence draws them into a cycle of revenge. The United Nations report
said an average of 94 Iraqis died every day in 2006, with about half the
deaths occurring in the capital. A majority died from gunshot wounds, in
execution-style killings that are a common method for death squads, both
Sunni and Shiite. The report registered the most lethal month as October,
with deaths declining slightly in November and December. Violence between Sunnis and
Shiites, virtually unheard of in the early years of the war, has become the
main driver of the tallies. Military commanders have
acknowledged that they underestimated the seriousness of the sectarian
killings, which took off after the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra last
year drew Shiites into the war. Before that, Sunni militants did most of the
killing. Now, the capital is mired in violence, as the two groups fight
bitterly over territory. In the shootings, bodies
surface days later in sewers and garbage dumps. The report said that most
unidentified bodies were found in six neighborhoods of Baghdad, three Sunni -
Dora, Rashidiya and Adhamiya - and three Shiite - Sadr City, New Baghdad and
the hardscrabble slum of Shuala. “It’s important to identify
the root cause of the violence,” said Gianni Magazzeni, chief of the United
Nations Assistance Mission to Iraq’s Human Rights Office, which compiled the
report. “Lack of accountability for crimes generates the urge for justice
through armed groups.” One result, described by the
report, is a society in collapse. At least 470,094 Iraqis have fled their
homes since February. The number of displaced Iraqis was the highest in the
embattled Sunni province of Anbar, where 10,105 families fled, followed by
Karbala in the south, Baghdad, and Dohuk in the north. Iraqi government forces also
suffered painful losses. The report cited an Interior Ministry figure of
12,000 Iraqi security forces killed, both the Army and the police, since
2003. The general breakdown in
order has led to a wave of crime, and many of the killings were part of that. “This law and order vacuum
has an encouraging effect on criminal groups of various affiliations, many of
whom use the Internet, mobile phone messaging systems, videos and pamphlets
to promote their criminal activities,” the report said. The Iraqis most tormented by
the violence are those least able to protect themselves against it: the poor.
Um Qasim, a Baghdad cleaning lady, has lost three brothers, a sister-in-law,
a nephew, a stepson and a son, all in the past three years. Two of her other
sons are in jail in the northern city of Mosul for playing minor roles in a
kidnapping arranged by her brother. Her life improved in a brief
but joyous spurt immediately after the invasion. During the looting that
followed, her family stole pieces of metal and bricks to build a solid roof
and second story on their modest house. But her life quickly
unraveled as two of her sons, looking for money, got involved in a kidnapping
and got caught. Another son, just 16 years old, was killed by Sunni
extremists not far from their house near Haifa Street, a poor, mostly Sunni
area that has been the scene of intense fighting in recent weeks. Ms. Qasim works several jobs
cleaning affluent homes; she takes minivans around the city to get to work.
Under Saddam Hussein, her main worry was how to feed her family. Now it is
how to keep them alive. “I never thought that one
day I would have to think about how to keep them alive,” she said. “Now, when
I go out of my house in the morning, I pray to God that when I return, I will
see all of them there alive.” The violence has expanded to
the point of leaving hospitals and morgues overflowing with bodies. The
report described the discovery of several recent mass graves. In the southern
city of Najaf, one grave was shallow, with bodies partly visible, and local
people asked authorities to dig it up to protect children in the area. In
Baquba, north of Baghdad, 28 bodies were found of members of the Shimari
tribe, who had been kidnapped and killed. In Baghdad, where dozens of
broken bodies turn up daily, the most feared site is on the edge of Sadr
City, the largest Shiite enclave in northeastern Baghdad. Bodies are dumped
in pre-prepared holes in the area, called al-Sadda, the report said. “The area is considered very
dangerous and controlled by the militias,” it said. “No one, including Iraqi
security forces, can visit the area without authorization of the militias.” The report also provided
details on the outcomes of a number of mass kidnappings that tormented Iraqis
throughout the fall. The attacks seem to be a signature of Shiite militias. Around 70 Iraqis, almost all
Sunnis, are still missing after being kidnapped in November from the Ministry
of Higher Education in downtown Baghdad. The attack took place on a day when
teachers from the Sunni areas of Anbar, Salahuddin and Mosul were visiting. The kidnappings have
completely redrawn the composition of neighborhoods. Sinek, a wholesale
market in the heart of Baghdad, once thoroughly mixed, is slowly emptying of
Sunnis. Men in uniforms seized around 50 merchants on Dec. 2. About 29 were
later released. All were Shiite. External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/world/middleeast/17iraq.ready.html |