UK rejects report of 100,000 Iraq civilian deaths

8.15am

LONDON - Britain rejected an estimate by US researchers that some 100,000 Iraqi civilians may have died as a result of the war, agreeing on Wednesday with an Iraqi government figure of a much smaller body count.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the estimate, in a report published late last month by British medical journal The Lancet, was based on imprecise data.

London supports an estimate from Iraq's Ministry of Health that 3853 civilians were killed and 15,517 injured between April and October this year, Straw said in a statement. Those figures may include insurgents.

The Lancet report was released just days before the US presidential election, where Iraq was a major campaign issue.

War critics accuse Washington and London of failing to protect Iraqis and say they have not kept count of civilian deaths since the March 2003 invasion.

"While recognising the bravery and professionalism of those conducting the Lancet study, the government does not accept its central conclusion, and continues to believe the most reliable figures for casualties in Iraq are those provided by Iraqi hospitals to the Iraqi Ministry of Health," Straw said.

The Iraq Body Count (IBC) -- an Anglo-American research group tracking civilian deaths via media and other sources -- has a much lower toll of about 14,000-16,500 civilian deaths from March 2003 to present.

Straw said London did not regard the IBC count as reliable since it was based on media reports of deaths, but he said it showed the Lancet's estimate appeared well off the mark.

The Lancet based its count on household surveys in September in randomly selected neighbourhoods, comparing Iraqi deaths during 14.6 months before the invasion in March 2003 and 17.8 months after.

The report concluded there were 100,000 "excess deaths" -- more than previous rates of mortality would have predicted -- over the last 18 months.

In comparison, US forces have suffered more than 1200 casualties since the war began -- including combat and non-combat deaths -- while some 71 British soldiers have died.

The Lancet said the rise in the death rate was mainly owing to violence and that much of it was caused by US air strikes.

Mortality was already high in Iraq before the war because of United Nations sanctions blocking food and medical imports but the researchers described what they found as shocking.

Straw blamed military and civilian casualties in Iraq directly on the action of insurgents.

"If the terrorists and insurgents gave up their campaign, the violence in Iraq would cease," he said.

He also rejected The Lancet's suggestion that the occupying forces in Iraq are obliged to keep a count of civilian casualties under the Geneva Conventions.

He said Britain was fully complying with international humanitarian law that prohibited indiscriminate attacks on civilians.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq