NationStates Jolt Archive


British PM admits mass grave number inflated

Incertonia
19-07-2004, 04:16
From the UK Guardian: Clicky (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1263901,00.html)

Downing Street has admitted to The Observer that repeated claims by Tony Blair that '400,000 bodies had been found in Iraqi mass graves' is untrue, and only about 5,000 corpses have so far been uncovered.

The claims by Blair in November and December of last year, were given widespread credence, quoted by MPs and widely published, including in the introduction to a US government pamphlet on Iraq's mass graves.

So even the humanitarian reason for invading Iraq is dissipating somewhat.

At the heart of the questions are the numbers so far identified in Iraq's graves. Of 270 suspected grave sites identified in the last year, 55 have now been examined, revealing, according to the best estimates that The Observer has been able to obtain, around 5,000 bodies. Forensic examination of grave sites has been hampered by lack of security in Iraq, amid widespread complaints by human rights organisations that until recently the graves have not been secured and protected.

So even if we extrapolate that out, we're looking at roughly 25,000 total--a monstrous total to be sure, and certainly worthy of putting Saddam Hussein among the great bastards of all time--but still a far cry from the 400,000 both the British and US governments were touting.