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For your files. Report: Conflict deaths underestimated UNITED
NATIONS -- Global estimates have routinely underestimated the true number of
people killed in armed conflict, including during the war in Iraq, according to
a report released Monday. The annual Small Arms Survey coincided with the start of a weeklong
conference at the United Nations to discuss efforts to stop the illegal spread
of small arms and light weapons. The survey said that it was possible that as many as 39,000 Iraqis
have died as a result of the conflict in Iraq from May 2003 to October 2004, more than twice media estimates of
between 10,000 and 15,000. It derived its
estimates from a study published in the Lancet medical journal last October,
which estimated 98,000 more civilians had died in Iraq since March 2003 than
would otherwise have been expected to have perished. The British government has
rejected those findings, which were based in part on projections. Monday's report, from
the Geneva-based Graduate
Institute of International Studies, said between 80,000 and 108,000 people were killed as a
direct result of conflict around the world in 2003 - two to four times higher
than current estimates. The estimates did not differentiate between civilian
and military deaths. It said death tolls
are usually based on misleading official estimates or media reports gathered
despite intense efforts to keep reporters away from the fighting. "Examples of politically motivated
misdirection about conflict casualties are numerous," the report said.
"Traditionally, this was called propaganda; the modern word is spin." Other recent examples
of such distortion include Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, the report said.
Advocacy groups and non-governmental organizations are also to blame, it said,
sometimes over-reporting or playing down casualties to further their own ends. The report said that between 60 and 90
percent of all deaths during conflict are caused by small arms and light
weapons
- everything from pistols to rocket-propelled grenades to assault rifles. That number highlights just how grave a
concern small arms are to conflict. And when small arms are not used directly,
they can still play a crucial role - as during the Rwanda genocide, when Hutu
extremists rounded up Tutsis at gunpoint and then often massacred them with
machetes. In prepared remarks to
the conference, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said more than 60 nations had
drawn up bodies to coordinate national policy on fighting the illicit trade of
small arms. "But we must not
relax our efforts to combat the scourge of illicit small arms and light
weapons, which continue to kill, mail and displace scores of thousands of
innocent people every year," Annan's statement said. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=UN%20Conflict%20Deaths |
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