U.N. raps Iraq for holding back death toll figures

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters

BAGHDAD, April 25 (Reuters) - The United Nations rebuked Iraq's government on Wednesday for refusing to disclose politically sensitive civilian casualty figures in what it described as a "rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis".

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government has accused the U.N. mission in Iraq of exaggerating the death toll from sectarian violence between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs and banned Iraqi officials from releasing data.

In a new human rights report on Iraq, the United Nations said academics, journalists and doctors and members of Iraq's religious and ethnic minorities were increasingly being intimidated, killed or kidnapped by armed groups.

It also expressed concern about the treatment of 3,000 suspects detained in a major U.S.-Iraqi crackdown in Baghdad. It said the government had a poor record of handling detainees.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/COL446084.htm

[maddezmom]

1. Baghdad Security Operation Hasn't Cut Violence - UN Report

Baghdad Security Operation Hasn't Cut Violence - UN Report



BAGHDAD (AP)--Sectarian violence continued to claim the lives of a large number of Iraqi civilians in Sunni Arab and Shiite neighborhoods of Iraq's capital, despite the coalition's new Baghdad security plan, the U.N. said Wednesday.

In its first human rights report since the security plan was launched on Feb. 14 - and began increasing U.S. and Iraqi troops levels in the capital -the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, or UNAMI, said civilian casualties in the daily violence between January and March remained high, concentrated in and around Baghdad.

U.S. troops are facing increasing danger as they step up their presence in outposts and police stations in Baghdad and areas surrounding the city, as part of the security crackdown to which U.S. President George W. Bush has committed an extra 30,000 troops.

Thousands of Iraqi soldiers also are being deployed in the streets of the capital in an attempt to pacify it.

"While government officials claimed an initial drop in the number of killings in the latter half of February following the launch of the Baghdad security plan, the number of reported casualties rose again in March," the study said.

more:http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20070425%5cACQDJON200704250421DOWJONESDJONLINE000397.htm&

[babylonsister]

2. Why does the UN care? I recall reading this recently:

but admittedly, it's early and I need coffee. Maybe one has nothing to do with the other?

http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070421/NEWS01/704210364/1002/NEWS01

U.N. to omit civilian deaths in Iraq report

April 21, 2007

By Kim Gamel Associated Press

BAGHDAD — The United Nations will not include Iraqi civilian casualty figures in its next human rights report, a spokesman said Friday, omitting what many had viewed as a rare, reliable indicator of suffering in Iraq.

The U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq had been releasing bimonthly reports assessing the human rights situation and providing death and injury tolls.

The last report was issued in late January, and U.N. officials in Baghdad had been saying for weeks that the new version would be released soon.

more...

[maddezmom]

3. I guess they couldn't include them, because Iraq refused to give them

:shrug:

[maddezmom]

4. Maliki hits back at UN rights report

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki hit back on Wednesday at a critical UN human rights report on the situation in his war-torn country and questioned its credibility.


“The Iraqi government announces that it has major reservations about this report, which lacks precision in its presentation of information, lacks credibility in many of its points and lacks balance in its presentation of the human rights situation in Iraq,” he said in an official statement.

“Despite the Iraqi government’s full cooperation and transparency in dealing with the UN delegation in Iraq, much of the information contained in the report was not taken from credible sources,” he said.

The United Nations Assistance Mission had earlier criticised Baghdad for concealing casualty figures for the country’s ongoing sectarian strife and alleged that detainees had disappeared while in state custody.


more:http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/focusoniraq/2007/April/focusoniraq_April191.xml§ion=focusoniraq