IRAQ: AP Counts 3,200 Civilian Deaths; Blix Says Pentagon Smeared Him
UN WIRE
http://www.unfoundation.org/unwire/util/display_stories.asp?objid=34206
An independent investigation by the Associated Press has revealed that at
least 3,240 civilians died in the recent U.S.-led war in Iraq, 1,900 of
them in Baghdad.
The results of the investigation, based on records from 60 out of Iraq's
124 hospitals and spanning the period from March 20, when the war started,
to April 20, when fighting had died down, were published today. The news
agency reports that the count is still fragmentary and that a final
tally, if ever computed, would likely be significantly higher (Niko
Price, AP/Yahoo! News, June 11).
Of the civilian deaths recorded, 1,896 were in Baghdad, 293 were in Najaf,
200 were in Karbala and 145 were in Nasiriya. The tally does not include
figures for Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, where hospitals signed 413
death certificates but did not track whether the casualties were civilian
or military (AP/Yahoo! News, June 10).
Neither the U.S. Department of Defense nor the British Defense Ministry
conducted a civilian death count.
The civilian death toll in the 1991 Gulf War was 2,278, according to Iraqi
government figures. The Pentagon did not tally civilian casualties in that
war, either (Price, AP/Yahoo! News).
Rumsfeld Warns Security Will Take Time; 30th Soldier Post-War Killed
The 30th soldier to die since U.S. President George W. Bush declared the
war in Iraq over on May 1 was killed yesterday when unknown assailants
fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a weapons collection point in Baghdad,
Agence France-Presse reports. Another was injured in the attack. Both
were U.S. soldiers.
Speaking in Lisbon at the start of a four-day European tour, U.S. Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said remnants of the Iraqi regime -- the
Fedayeen Saddam and Baathists and very likely the special Republican Guard
are the ones that are periodically attacking coalition forces, sometimes
successfully.
Rumsfeld said such attacks would probably not diminish in the next month
or two or three.
It will take time to root out the remnants of the [former Iraqi President]
Saddam Hussein regime, and we intend to do it, he said (AFP/Yahoo! News,
June 11).
A military effort, dubbed Operation Peninsula Strike, to end attacks by
Hussein loyalists began Monday and continued yesterday as U.S. troops and
Iraqi police scoured the Tigris River north of Baghdad in search of
paramilitaries blamed for the deaths of 11 U.S. soldiers in the last two
weeks. The effort, with tanks, artillery and aircraft, is reportedly the
largest military undertaking since the war ended.
Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress, said Hussein has been
seen north of Baghdad and is paying rewards for every U.S. soldier killed.
U.S. Defense Department officials said they had no corroborating evidence
for Chalabi's claim (Chicago Tribune, June 11).
U.N. Chief Inspector Says Pentagon Undermined Him
U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspections Commission Executive Chairman
Hans Blix told the London Guardian yesterday that some elements of the
U.S. Defense Department led a smear campaign against him.
I have my detractors in Washington, Blix said. There are bastards who
spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media.
Not that I cared very much, he added. It was like a mosquito bite in the
evening that is there in the morning, an irritant.
According to the Guardian, Pentagon officials criticized Blix as a bad
choice to lead the inspections in Iraq when they were relaunched in
November. Part of the campaign against him, Blix said, was a rumor that he
was a homosexual.
Blix said overall his relationship with Washington was good, but added
that towards the end the (Bush) administration leaned on the inspectors
to use more damning language in their reports, especially regarding the
discovery of cluster bombs and drones in March.
Blix said Washington viewed the United Nations as an alien power and that
it was his impression that there are people in this [the Bush]
administration who say they don't care if the U.N. sinks under the East
River, and other crude things.
Blix, 74, will retire in three weeks and return to life in Stockholm with
his wife, Eva (Helena Smith, London Guardian, June 11).
Interim UNMOVIC Chief Named
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has appointed UNMOVIC Deputy Executive
Chairman Demetrius Perricos to take over as acting head of the commission
July 1, when Blix retires. Perricos was the commission's director of
planning and operations for three years prior to his appointment in January
to the body's number two post.
The Greek native joined the International Atomic Energy Agency in 1972 as a
safeguards inspector and led the team that certified the dissolution of
South Africa's nuclear weapons program. He also worked in Iraq after the
1991 Gulf War (U.N. release, June 10).
IRAQ: $100
