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RE: [casi-analysis] Iraqi Healthcare: "We are dealing with a crisis"



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> Sent: 06 March 2004 03:09
>
> Four damning and despairing stories have recently reported
> the state of Iraq's hospitals.  Today's Washington Post
> carries the most powerful of the lot (below in ts entirety),
> and others (from the NYTimes, Independent, and AFP) are
> cached on OccupationWatch's website (links below).

Thank you, Drew, for these disturbing articles.

Has anyone on the list seen a follow up to the 10 December (2003) Associated
Press story, "Iraq's Health Ministry Ordered To Stop Counting Civilian
Dead"?  I excerpt from it below.  Just over a month ago, I spoke to an Iraqi
journalist, who told me that he had pursued the story briefly, but had been
unable to make headway with it.  Thus, whether or not this is true, and what
mortality figures look like now, are mysteries to me.

If list members had further information on this story, I would be very
interested to hear from them.  If list members are in touch with journalists
in Iraq who might be in a position to research the story, they might
appreciate the suggestion.

Best,

Colin Rowat

work | Room 406, Department of Economics | The University of Birmingham |
Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK | web.bham.ac.uk/c.rowat | ( 44/0) 121 414 3754 |
(+44/0) 121 414 7377 (fax) | c.rowat@bham.ac.uk

personal | (+44/0) 7768 056 984 (mobile) | (+44/0) 7092 378 517 (fax) |
(707) 221 3672 (US fax) | c.rowat@espero.org.uk

Iraq's Health Ministry has ordered a halt to a count of civilians killed
during the war and told its statistics department not to release figures
compiled so far, the official who oversaw the count told The Associated
Press on Wednesday.  The health minister, Dr. Khodeir Abbas, denied in an
email that he had anything to do with the order, saying he didn't even know
about the study. ... Dr. Nagham Mohsen, the head of the ministry's
statistics department, said the order was relayed to her by the ministry's
director of planning, Dr. Nazar Shabandar, who said it came on behalf of
Abbas. She said the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, which oversees
the ministry, also wanted the counting to stop.  "We have stopped the
collection of this information because our minister didn't agree with it,"
she said, adding: "The CPA doesn't want this to be done." ... A major
investigation of Iraq's wartime civilian casualties was compiled by The
Associated Press, which documented the deaths of 3,240 civilians between
March 20 and April 20. That investigation, conducted in May and June,
surveyed about half of Iraq's hospitals, and reported that the real number
of civilian deaths was sure to be much higher.



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