Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 28. Oktober 2004 / Time Line October 28, 2004
Version 3.510/28/2004
Women, peace and security
http://www.peacewomen.org/un/4thAnniversary/4thAnniversaryindex.html
The PeaceWomen Project of WILPF has posted on-line the statements
made by UN Member States, including Security Council members, UN
entities and civil society at the United Nations Security Council
Open Debate on women, peace and security on 28 October 2004.
10/28/2004
Study: 100,000 Excess Civilian Iraqi Deaths Since War
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=8&u=/nm/20041028/ts_nm/iraq_deaths_dc
By Patricia Reaney
LONDON (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in
violence since the U.S.-led invasion last year, American public
health experts have calculated in a report that estimates there
were 100,000 "excess deaths" in 18 months.
The rise in the death rate was mainly due to violence and much of
it was caused by U.S. air strikes on towns and cities.
"Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100,000
excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of
Iraq (news - web sites)," said Les Roberts of the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health in a report published online by
The Lancet medical journal.
"The use of air power in areas with lots of civilians appears to be
killing a lot of women and children," Roberts told Reuters.
The report came just days before the U.S. presidential election in
which the Iraq war has been a major issue.
Mortality was already high in Iraq before the war because of United
Nations (news - web sites) sanctions blocking food and medical
imports but the researchers described what they found as
shocking.
The new figures are based on surveys done by the researchers in
Iraq in September 2004. They compared Iraqi deaths during 14.6
months before the invasion in March 2003 and the 17.8 months after
it by conducting household surveys in randomly selected
neighborhoods.
Previous estimates based on think tank and media sources put the
Iraqi civilian death toll at up to 16,053 and military fatalities
as high as 6,370.
By comparison about 849 U.S. military were killed in combat or
attacks and another 258 died in accidents or incidents not related
to fighting, according to the Pentagon.
Added later by the editor:
The study was funded by the Center for International Emergency
Disaster and Refugee Studies at Johns Hopkins University and by
the Small Arms Survey in Geneva, Switzerland, a research
project based at the Graduate Institute of International Studies
in Geneva.
Mortality Before and After the 2003 Invasion of Iraq :
Cluster Sample Survey
by Les Roberts, Riyadh Lafta, Richard Garfield, Jamal Khudhairi,
and Gilbert Burnham
The address below gets you to the intro pages of the two pieces
with further links -- users may need to register (which is free and
easy):
-
http://www.thelancet.com/journal/vol364/iss9445/early_online_publication
Kelly: Rick: International health experts demand inquiry into number of Iraqi war casualties.
WSWS : News & Analysis : Middle East : Iraq
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/iraq-m12.shtml
Pentagon Suppresses Details of Civilian Casualties, Says
Expert
Published on Sunday, October 31, 2004 by the lndependent/UK
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1031-01.htm
by Raymond Whitaker
The Pentagon is collecting figures on local casualties in Iraq,
contrary to its public claims, but the results are classified,
according to one of the authors of an independent study which
reported last week that the war has killed at least 100,000
Iraqis.
Mr Powell decided to keep the figures secret because of the
controversy over body counts in Vietnam, but I think democracies
need this information.
"Despite the claim of the head of US Central Command at the time,
General Tommy Franks, that 'We don't do body counts', the US
military does collect casualty figures in Iraq," said Professor
Richard Garfield, an expert on the effects of conflict on
civilians. "But since 1991, when Colin Powell was head of the joint
chiefs of staff, the figures have been kept secret."
Professor Garfield, who lectures at Columbia University in New York
and the London School of Hygiene and Public Health, believes the
Pentagon's stance has confused its response to the latest study.
"The military is saying: 'We don't believe it, but because we don't
collect figures, we can't comment," he said.
10/28/2004
IISS: Military contractors no substitute for troops in
Iraq
http://www.geostrategy-direct.com/geostrategy-direct/secure/2004/11_02/1.asp
LONDON - A new study has ruled out use of private military
contractors as a major element in any international effort to
stabilize an Arab or developed state.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies said the war in
Iraq has demonstrated the failure of PMCs to replace military
troops or security forces. The London-based institute said despite
the profusion of PMCs, private contractors have been unable to
resolve manpower shortages facing the U.S.-led coalition.
"They could not provide the answer to the manpower problem," the
report said.
10/28/2004
FBI probes Halliburton's Pentagon contracts
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-ushall1029,0,6811607,print.story
WASHINGTON -- The FBI has begun investigating whether the Pentagon
improperly awarded no-bid contracts to Halliburton Co., seeking an
interview with a top Army contracting officer and collecting
documents from several government offices.
The line of inquiry expands an earlier FBI investigation into
whether Halliburton overcharged taxpayers for fuel in Iraq, and it
elevates to a criminal matter the election-year question of whether
the Bush administration showed favoritism to Vice President Dick
Cheney's former company.
FBI agents this week sought permission to interview Bunnatine
Greenhouse, the Army Corps of Engineers' chief contracting officer
who went public last weekend with allegations that her agency
unfairly awarded KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, no-bid contracts
worth billions of dollars for work in Iraq, according to documents
obtained by The Associated Press.
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