UN says over 34,000 Iraqi civilians killed in 2006 http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2007-01-16T100442Z_01_PAR633453_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-CASUALTIES-UN.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C2-TopNews-newsOne-6
Tue Jan 16, 2007
By Claudia Parsons
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United Nations said more than 34,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in violence last year, although the number decreased slightly in the last two months compared to September and October.
The U.N. human rights chief in Iraq, Gianni Magazzeni, told a news conference on Tuesday that 34,452 civilians were killed and more than 36,000 wounded in 2006.
He accused the government of failing to provide security and blamed some of the violence on militias colluding with or working inside the police and army.
The figures are much higher than any statistics issued by Iraqi government officials. The government itself branded the United Nations' last two-monthly report in November grossly exaggerated and banned Iraqi officials from releasing data.
No comparable data for 2005 were immediately available but Iraqi and U.N. officials, along with evidence collected by reporters, indicate that sectarian bloodshed has risen dramatically in the past year, especially in Baghdad.
"During 2006, 34,452 civilians have been violently killed," Magazzeni said. "The focus of this report is actually on the need for the government to increase its action with respect to the rule of law.
"Law enforcement agencies do not provide effective protection to the population of Iraq," he said, adding that "militias act in collusion with or have infiltrated" the security forces.
According the latest U.N. report, based on data from hospitals compiled by the Health Ministry and from the Baghdad morgue, 6,376 civilians were killed in November and December, Magazzeni said.
That was a rate of 105 killed across Iraq every day, compared to 120 a day in September and October when 7,054 civilians were killed in a comparable 61-day period.
Of 4,731 people killed in Baghdad in November and December, most died of gunshot wounds, he said -- a factor that would indicate they were victims of death squad killings rather than the car bombings that are also a feature of the Iraqi capital.
An official at the Baghdad morgue, breaking the government ban on giving out statistics, told Reuters this week that the morgue took in some 16,000 bodies last year, 80-85 percent of them victims of violence.
Interior Ministry officials said this month that more than 12,000 civilians were killed in "terrorist" acts. They did not give statistics for other types of violent death.
The Washington Post quoted a Health Ministry official last week as saying that more than 23,000 civilians and police were killed in 2006. Removing the police element of that figure and adding the violent deaths recorded by the Baghdad morgue would result in a number similar to that given by the U.N.
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