Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Darfur Dead Much Higher than Commonly Reported
The death toll is likely much higher, notes John Hagan, co-author of the report published in the September 15 Science. Their reported upper limit "likely increases to the 400,000 range if the further year of the conflict is estimated and if missing and presumed dead persons are included," he says. Other experts agree that the new tally is a low estimate. This study should "not in any way bill itself, or be billed as, a global mortality study of the Darfur genocide," says Sudan researcher Eric Reeves of Smith College. A major survey of violent mortality counted a death toll of 397,000 as of April 2005, he observes. Better counting of the dead will not be possible until investigators can safely enter the region.
But still, not genocide?