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note from the director of the survey
I was the country director of the first (and maybe only) door-to-door
civilian casualties survey. Marla Ruzika was my American partner, the fund raiser,
and the general director of CIVIC. Unfortunately, she didn't have the chance to
publish the final results until now.
I decided to publish my copy of the final results of the Iraqi
civilian casualties in Baghdad and the south of Iraq on the 9th of this month
in respect to the big effort of the 150 volunteers who worked with me and spent
weeks of hard work under the hot sun of the summer, in respect to Majid my brother
who spent weeks arranging the data entry process, and in respect to the innocent
souls of those who died because of irresponsible political decisions.
Two thousand killed, Four thousand injured.
Each one of these thousands has a life, memories, hopes. Each
one had his moments of sadness, moments of joy and moments of love.
In respect to their sacred memory, I would appreciate it if
you could spend some minutes reading the database file: read their names, and
their personal details, and think about them as human beings, friends, and relatives
-- not mere figures and numbers.
I led the volunteers in their work in Baghdad, and the nine
cities of the south: Karbala, Hilla, Najaf, Diwanyya, Simawa, Nasryya, Basra,
Kut and Amara through my weekly visits. I went to the north for a couple of times,
and arranged some smaller-scale surveys.
The survey teams were from the local areas: I made sure to
create groups that reflected the ethnical, religious and gender ratios of the
targeted regions. And I designed the survey form, all of which relied on my scientific
background I gained from my M.Sc. researches, and relied on the very cooperative
spirits of the volunteers and of the Iraqi families. We preferred not to include
the military casualties to give our survey a civilian perspective.
Civilian: anyone killed outside the battlefield, even if his
original job was military (e.g. a soldier killed in his house is a civilian).
Military: anyone killed while fighting in a battle, even if his original job was
a civic one (e.g. an engineer killed while fighting as a Fidaee). We had primitive
and simple tools of research, yet I believe our survey is credible and accountable.
I would like to thank my friend Michael Richardson, a writer
and graphic designer from Northampton, MA, USA, for his huge effort in designing
and publishing the casualties website.
—Raed Jarrar
Baghdad
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