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| Iraq |
| Study Claims Iraqis Have Half Million Non-Existing Death Certificates |
| 2006-10-20 |
| From Iraq Body Count, a critique of the article recently published in The Lancet medical journal about Iraqi deaths. A new study has been released by the Lancet medical journal estimating over 650,000 excess deaths in Iraq. The Iraqi mortality estimates published in the Lancet in October 2006 imply, among other things, that: * On average, a thousand Iraqis have been violently killed every single day in the first half of 2006, with less than a tenth of them being noticed by any public surveillance mechanisms; * Some 800,000 or more Iraqis suffered blast wounds and other serious conflict-related injuries in the past two years, but less than a tenth of them received any kind of hospital treatment; .... * Half a million death certificates were received by families which were never officially recorded as having been issued; * The Coalition has killed far more Iraqis in the last year than in earlier years containing the initial massive "Shock and Awe" invasion and the major assaults on Falluja. [.....] In the light of such extreme and improbable implications, a rational alternative conclusion to be considered is that the authors have drawn conclusions from unrepresentative data. [....] In 87% of cases where deaths were reported, the survey team asked to see death certificates, leading to the Lancet authors' statement that "92% of households had death certificates for deaths they reported". Assuming, as the authors do, that this is representative of the population as a whole, would imply that officials in Iraq have issued approximately 550,000 death certificates for violent deaths (92% of 601,000). Yet in June 2006, the total figure of post-war violent deaths known to the Iraqi Ministry of Health (MoH), combined with the Baghdad morgue, was approximately 50,000. .... |
| Posted by:These Ebbatle4542 |
| #1 Waitaminute... These numbers don't make sense! Lois! Take Jimmy to get some photos and get going on this! |
| Posted by: Perry White 2006-10-20 21:56 |