Jousting with the Lancet: Pajamas Media Interviews Professor Gilbert Burnham
unicef said:
shiite and kurd 400,000 bodies we found in mass graves
The 400,000 claim probably comes from a speech by Tony Blair on November 20, 2003. The claim turned out to be false and Blair was forced to retract.
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.
Guardian, July 18, 2004
unicef can be forgiven however….US Government agencies still throws Blair’s erroneous 400,000 claim around.
The current number is larger than 5,000 but the investigation is undoubtedly severely hampered by the worsening security situation. According to a Washington Post article last year more than 300 sites are being investigated but only a fraction (less than 100) have been confirmed. In Iraq a mass grave is defined as a grave with more than 6 bodies.
