WHO: Violence Claims 151000 Iraqi Deaths in 3 yrs

WHO: Violence Claims 151000 Iraqi Deaths in 3 yrs

A study released by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneve estimated the number of Iraqi deaths out of violence at about 151 thousand deaths, including those killed by the US army and those killed in the violence committed by militants and sectarian groups .



 
The study is based on a survey conducted by the Ministry of Health that included about 10 thousand families, five times the number of those participating in a contradictory study conducting by John Hopkins university saying that more than 60 thousand Iraqis were killed.
 The WHO report isn”t the only handling Iraqi suffering, Human Rights Watch organization issued a statement on Friday Jan, 11th, 2008, in which it demanded Iraqi parliament to quickly approve a legislation that aims to end the chaos and recklessness adopted by foreign contractors who escape punishment as ” the US-led coalition created a legal loophole that allows foreign contractors in Iraq to commit serious violations and escape punishment”, according to Sara Wetson of the Human Rights Watch.



 
For his part, Iraqi Minister of Health, Saleh Al Hasnawi acknowledged that the WHO report is right and said the figures it mentions are true and that more than half the Iraqi violent deaths are committed in Baghdad according to this report.
 
The Iraqi Minister of Health detailed some problems that faced the researchers ” We didn”t manage to visit some houses because of lacking security and some residents left their homes because of the conflict”.
 
It is worth mentioning that a number of US human rights activists demanded Iraqi parliament issue a legislation that hold US security contractors in Iraq accountable for any violation. They also demanded the US government to punish the contractors involved in any killing in Baghdad as the current US law allows suing private contractors co-operating with the US Department of Defense.



 
However, the US government hasn”t sued any contractor yet for committing violations against Iraqi civilians, in spite of tens of reports detailing human rights violations and unjustified and random shootings committed in Iraq.
 
More than half the Iraqi deaths are in the capital Baghdad, according to the WHO report. in the first year of the US invasion, an average of 128 Iraqis were killed every day due to violence, while the following year witnessed an average of 115 deaths everyday to reach an average of 126 deaths per day in 2006, the third year of the US-led occupation of Iraq.
 
And since Al Ghzoualamriki to Iraq number dead issue remained from the civilians a controversial topic, and The United States does not deploy any statistics about the number of civil dead in Iraq .