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Iraq withholds death toll, but estimate is in thousands

Relatives grieve next to the body of a victim of violence in Baqouba, Iraq, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, on Wednesday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Tina Susman Los Angeles Times
Relatives grieve next to the body of a victim of violence in Baqouba, Iraq, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, on Wednesday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The Iraqi government has refused to provide the United Nations with civilian casualty figures for its latest report on the hardships facing Iraqis, the U.N. said Wednesday, but numbers from various ministries indicate that more than 5,500 people died in the Baghdad area alone in the first three months of 2007.

The numbers, provided to the Los Angeles Times by employees in government ministries, could not be independently verified.

At a news conference to unveil the U.N.’s 10th report on the human-rights situation in Iraq since August 2005, the spokesman for the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, Said Arikat, said the government had given no “official” reason for not issuing casualty figures. But Ivana Vuco, a U.N. human-rights officer, said government officials had made clear during discussions that they believed releasing high casualty numbers would make it more difficult to quell unrest.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government rejected the report for its criticisms of the country’s judicial system, saying it “lacks accuracy” and balance. Among other things, the U.N. said some prisoners in Iraqi detention facilities faced torture, were forced into confessing to alleged crimes and were denied adequate access to lawyers.

U.S. Embassy officials also faulted the findings, saying its criticism of the legal system in particular contained inaccuracies.

American officials defended al-Maliki’s decision to withhold casualty figures. “There were sometimes concerns with political motivations” in the release of statistics, one U.S. Embassy official said, referring to the sectarian and ethnic polarization plaguing al-Maliki’s government.

In its previous report, issued in January, the U.N. said 34,452 civilians had died in violence last year, a figure it based on information from government ministries, hospitals and medical officials. The Iraqi government put the 2006 death toll at 12,357.

The medical journal Lancet estimated in October that more than 600,000 Iraqis had died since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

The numbers obtained by the Times indicated that civilian deaths numbered 1,991 in January, dropped to 1,646 in February – the month the security plan began – then rose to 1,872 in March.