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Doctors' survey of families estimates Iraqi wartime deaths
at 100,000
By
Emma Ross
Associated Press
October 29, 2004
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Doctors' survey of families estimates Iraqi wartime deaths
at 100,000 Friday, October 29, 2004 Emma Ross Associated Press London - A
survey of deaths in Iraqi households estimates that as many as 100,000
more people may have died throughout the country in the 18 months since
the U.S.-led invasion than would be expected based on the death rate
before the war.
There is no official figure for the number of Iraqis killed
since the conflict began, but some non- governmental estimates range from
10,000 to 30,000.
The scientists who wrote the report concede that the
statistics they based their projections on were of "limited precision," be
cause the quality of the information depends on the accuracy of the
household interviews used for the study. The interviewers were Iraqis,
most of them doctors.
Designed and conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins
University, Columbia University and the Al-Mustansiriya University located
in Baghdad, the study was published Thursday on the Web site of the Lancet
medical journal.
The survey indicated that violence accounted for most of
the extra deaths seen since the invasion, and that airstrikes by coalition
forces caused most of those deaths, the researchers wrote in the
British-based journal.
Les Roberts, the lead researcher from Johns Hopkins, said
the article's timing just days before the U.S. presidential election was
up to him.
"My motive in doing that was not to skew the election,"
Roberts told The Associated Press. "My motive was that if this came out
during the campaign, both candidates would be forced to pledge to protect
civilian lives in Iraq."
To conduct the survey, investigators visited 33
neighborhoods spread evenly across the country in September, randomly
selecting clusters of 30 households to sample.
© Copyright LANCET, REUTERS AND AP 2004 . For fair use only/ pour usage
équitable seulement
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