Darfur death toll a political football
May 4th, 2008
A claim by the senior United Nations official in charge of humanitarian relief that up to 300 000 people have died in Darfur, western Sudan, since fighting erupted there in 2003 has reignited controversy over whether mortality figures are being deliberately inflated, or understated, for political reasons.
John Holmes, a former British diplomat who is UN Under-Secretary-General for humanitarian affairs, gave the new estimated figure in a report to the security council last week. The previous UN estimate for deaths from all causes, including disease, malnutrition, reduced life expectancy and direct combat, was 200 000.
The 50% increase in total fatalities has reportedly surprised UN agencies and NGOs in Darfur. The crisis, in which 2,7-million people have been displaced, has turned into the world’s biggest relief operation, involving 14 000 humanitarian workers and an annual cost of $800-million.
Sudan’s Islamic government has strongly objected to Holmes’s total. Its official total of about 10 000 deaths since 2003 is widely dismissed as unrealistic. But Khartoum says it has only counted people killed in fighting. It argues that because of the relief effort and, for example, an absence of epidemics, Darfur’s six-million population is healthier overall than inhabitants of southern Sudan and some sub-Saharan countries.
Holmes later conceded that the 300 000 total “is not a very scientifically based figure”. He said it was a “reasonable extrapolation” from the earlier UN estimate of 200 000. But that figure has also been challenged as too high in some quarters.
In a study of mortality trends in Darfur, published in August last year by the independent New York-based Social Science Research Council, Alex de Waal, a leading Sudan expert and disaster demographer, said the US General Accounting Office (GAO) had reviewed all relevant mortality surveys since 2003.
The GAO concluded that the most reliable was that conducted by the World Health Organisation-affiliated Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (Cred) in Brussels.
Tags: holmes, john
May 5th, 2008 at 12:02 am
Oh, only 100,000! Those smarmy liberals made a mountain out of a molehill. What’s 100,000 foreign lives when compared to domestic security?
May 5th, 2008 at 12:52 am
The actual figures is more than a million.Didn’t some redditor just bunk this new study?
May 5th, 2008 at 1:43 am
Right-wingers? I’m right-wing and pro-peace you narrow minded dip shit.
May 5th, 2008 at 2:33 am
I’d say Iraq has had a pretty rough time as well.
May 5th, 2008 at 3:24 am
Happy Easter, huh? What a disgrace these last 5 years have been for our country.
May 5th, 2008 at 4:14 am
I guess when you are not “god’s” chosen people your life does not matter.
May 5th, 2008 at 5:05 am
Say hello to the concept of a “generalisation”.Let me put it like this:There were Germans such as Oskar Schindler around between 1933 and 1945. It is nevertheless fair to say that Germans were responsible for the Jewish Holocaust.Yes, there may be exceptions, but the sad truth is that the vast majority of US right-wingers supported (and many (or most?) of them still support) a foreign policy of unprovoked violence on an enormous scale; a policy that was (and continues to be) responsible for Iraq’s (still unfolding) death toll catastrophe.To call US right-wingers responsible for that is not being a “narrow minded dip shit”. It is calling a spade a spade. Yes, it sucks to be part of a group that is burdened with the collective guilt of responsibility for such enormities. Tell me about it. I happen to be German. But I wouldn’t think of calling anyone who said Germany was responsible for the Holocaust a “narrow minded dip shit”. I accept that by accident of birth I am burdened with a collective guilt. That’s not the same as individual guilt, but it is something to be aware of and draw conclusions from. I’m not asking you to engage in chronic remorse. In the words of Aldous Huxley:”Chronic remorse, as all the moralists agree, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.”Aldous Huxley, A Brave New Worldpermalinkparentfeedback | bookmarklets | buttons | widget | store | advertise WIRED.com - WIRED How-ToUse of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy(c) 2008 CondeNet, Inc. All rights reserved.please log in or register in to vote for the links you like or dislike. this will affect their ranking and help customize reddit for you.create a new accountall it takes is a username and passwordusername:email: (optional)password:verify password:setMessage($(’captcha’), ‘type the letters from the image above’);remember meI understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its User Agreement and Privacy Policy.create account
May 5th, 2008 at 5:56 am
Wow. 4,000 is a staggering number.Until you realize that there are more than 120,000 abortions a day.Kinda puts it in persepective.