But in an essay Ms Ruzicka wrote a week before her death on Saturday and published yesterday, the 28-year-old revealed that a Brigadier General told her it was “standard operating procedure” for US troops to file a report when they shoot a non-combatant.
She obtained figures for the number of civilians killed in Baghdad between 28 February and 5 April, and discovered that 29 had been killed in firefights involving US forces and insurgents. This was four times the number of Iraqi police killed.
“These statistics demonstrate that the US military can and does track civilian casualties,” she wrote. “Troops on the ground keep these records because they recognise they have a responsibility to review each action taken and that it is in their interest to minimise mistakes, especially since winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis is a key component of their strategy.”
Sam Zia-Zarifi, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, the group for which Ms Ruzicka wrote the report, said her discovery “was very important because it allows the victims to start demanding compensation”. He added: “At a policy level they have never admitted they keep these figures.”
Exactly how many Iraqi civilians have been killed in the last two years is unclear…link
I have my doubts about the accuracy of the figures she obtained, and am of the opinion that counting victims is spotty, at best, and that it is likely that the figures reported are extremely low.
However, her insistence that the Iraqis are human beings as opposed to vermin would have without a doubt firmly established her as a troublemaker at the very least.
It is extremely unlikely that the circumstances surrounding her death will ever be known.
Like so many of the Iraqis she defied America to help, she died horribly, burned to death, and not instantly.
My guess is that the current reporting of numbers is low, but not terribly so.
Once the aerial bombardment and artillery phases were largely over, the numbers probably got significantly more accurate.
However, the huge numbers of civilians killed early on, probably are not properly reflected in any total tally.
“My guess is that the current reporting of numbers is low, but not terribly so.”
Referring to your quote above,RWIW my Iraqi friend has said to me that Iraqi’s think the number is well over 200,000 civilian deaths since the war began.
I mean the numbers tallied by the armed forces are probably low, currently, but not terribly so.
The numbers from the invasion and first year are probably very low.
So, however many people the military says they killed last week is probably somewhat accurate.
But the overall number is probably way off.
That’s only my guess.
Then add in those who count only the ones they don’t have plausible deniability about, if they in fact have been told to count, and of course, even with the best intentions, which I do not think any of them have, they can’t count them all, when they blow up buildings, unless they go sift through the rubble, and even then some people, especially children, are just vaporized, depending on the size of the bomb.
Then there are those who may be technically alive immediately after a massacre, but die after the counters have left.
And the Resistance reporters are no help, either, they hardly ever mention numbers, just “many” “dozens” “several,” to be fair, a lot of reporting of actual attacks in Iraq is essentially a covert operation, which negatively impacts the specificity and amount of information. For instance, you can never tell from a Resistance report whether US casualties are mercenaries or “regular” expendables.
I’d never heard of this woman until she died but when I saw her death listed I immediately began to wonder about it.
I don’t think Marla knew too much but I do think she might have asked too much. She was also busy in Afghanistan and was a charismatic, outspoken activist.
For all I know, she might’ve been killed simply for being female and outspoken, not because of her particular politics, which it would seem any Iraqi (including the “insurgents) would support. Or she might’ve been killed simple because she was blond and a foreigner.
The best way to honor her work is to remember what she, like Rachel Corrie before her, were trying to do. And to ask our government the same questions again and again and again until we get an answer.
IF the US doesn’t count civilian casualties, why not? And whom do we need to talk to about changing this policy?
And if they do count them, why won’t they release the numbers?
Pax
It appears that the US Embassy is counting but will not release their figures.
For example, there were 50 Iraqi deaths on Iraq election day according to correspondent Mark Danner. It was not reported at the time. All we heard about were the long lines of voters and the purple fingers.
http://tinyurl.com/4tvt2
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
Marla Ruzicka cooperated with Iraq Body Count.
This from September 16, 2004.
“The 3029 names have been compiled by members of the Iraq Body Count project, using a wide range of sources, primarily press and media reports. Approximately 2000 of the names were supplied by Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi researcher who directed an on-the-ground, door-to-door survey undertaken by 150 Iraqi volunteers in the Summer of 2003 (http://civilians.info/iraq/), undertaken in collaboration with the US-based Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC) directed by Marla Ruzicka (http://www.civicworldwide.org/).”
The figure above is not the total of civilian casualties but rather those named. That was Marla Ruzicka’s idea, to name the victims and get compensation for their families’ homes.