An American historian has said that the new UN estimate of 34,000 Iraqis killed in 2006 made headlines around the world, but it’s almost certainly far too low. The number was based on information from morgues, hospitals and municipal authorities across Iraq, but it only lists civilians. Jon Weiner, who teaches history at the University of California, writes that the first problem with the UN count is that it refers only to civilians - and thus almost certainly omits deaths of Iraqi policemen, soldiers, insurgent fighters, and members of private militias like the Badr brigade. News media failed to report how the UN separated “civilian” casualties from the total, and the UN notably failed to report the total including non-civilians.
The second problem is the UN’s methodology, Prof Weiner argues, is that it relied mostly on tallying official death certificates. The UN argues that its methodology is reliable because “a vast majority of Iraqi deaths are registered” with officials because Iraqis want to “prove inheritance and receive government compensation”. But many bodies found in mass graves or ditches are unidentified. And according to the Los Angeles Times, “Victims’ families are all too often reluctant to claim the bodies … for fear of reprisals.” Chaotic wartime conditions in several provinces make it difficult for officials there to issue death certificates even when victims’ families do not fear reprisals.