March 2006
Figures released by IBC today [March 9th], updated by statistics for the year 2005 from the main Baghdad morgue, show that the total number of civilians reported killed has risen year-on-year since May 1st 2003 (the date that President Bush announced “major combat operations have ended”):
In terms of average violent deaths per day this represents:
The IBC figure for Year 3 includes no deaths from March 2006, excludes the bulk of killings which followed the 22nd February bombing of a major Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra, and lacks Baghdad morgue data for January and February this year. If January and February 2006 are excluded as being clearly incomplete, then the daily death rate for the remaining part of Year 3 rises to 40 (11,480 deaths over 287 days = 40 per day). However even before Year 3 has ended, and with incomplete data for its final months, the number of civilians reported killed is already higher than for all of Year 2 (12,617 vs. 11,312).
Although what has been described as ‘sectarian violence’ undoubtedly contributes to a growing proportion of deaths, the last year’s total includes 370 known civilian deaths from military action by US-led forces and 2,231 from anti-occupation activity against coalition and Iraqi government targets. The post-invasion increase in criminal activity remains an important concern, but the majority of media reports do not allow a clear identification of the perpetrators or their motives. The “unknown agents” who did most of the killing could fall into any of the categories above, as well as other types of ‘terrorist.’ Reports also indicate that the past year has seen an increasing number of extra-judicial executions.
Speaking from London, Iraq Body Count cofounder John Sloboda said, “Today’s figures are an indictment of three years of occupation, which continues to make the lives of ordinary Iraqis worse, not better. Talk of civil war is a convenient way for the US and Iraqi authorities to mask the real and continuing core of this conflict, which is between an incompetent and brutal occupying power on the one hand and a nationalist insurgency fuelled by grief, anger, and humiliation on the other. This conflict is proof that violence begets more violence. The initial act that sparked this cycle of violence is the illegal US-led invasion of March and April 2003 which resulted in 7,312 civilian deaths and 17,298 injured in a mere 42 days. The insurgency will remain strong so long as the US military remains in Iraq, and ordinary Iraqi people will have more death and destruction to look forward to.”
Iraq Body Count cofounder Hamit Dardagan added: “In September 2003,
after our first major review of civil insecurity in Iraq informed by
data from the Baghdad morgue, we noted that:
‘The US may be effective at waging war but the descent of Iraq’s
capital city into lawlessness under US occupation shows that it is
incompetent at maintaining public order and providing security for
the civilian population. The US has toppled Saddam and discovered
that it won't be discovering any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
So why is it still there? And if the US military can’t ensure the
safety of Iraqi civilians and itself poses a danger to them, what is
its role in that country?’
“The question still stands, and Iraqis are still being killed in
increasing numbers. How many more must die before the architects of
the ‘military solution’ for Iraq realise that the only sure way to
reduce violence is to stop inflicting it?”
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