Balance sheet
* Over one million Iraqis have died.
A study published in January 2008 by Opinion Business Research (ORB), in collaboration with the Independent Institute for Administration and Civil Society Studies, an independent Iraqi institution, estimated that 1.2 million Iraqis have been killed since 2003. The study confirms the assessment made by two previous studies conducted by the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and published in the medical journal The Lancet. All studies consider the actions of occupation forces as the main cause of violent death in Iraq.
* The US Department of Defense confirms the deaths of 3,988 American soldiers to date, while 175 UK soldiers and 133 soldiers of other nationalities have also died. More than 1,001 contractors have been killed since 2003, and an estimated 8,019 members of the Iraqi Security Forces have also been killed.
* At least 15,000 Iraqis have disappeared since 2003, based on research done by local NGOs.
* Over 4.7 million Iraqis have been displaced or made refugees.
The US occupation has created the largest and fastest growing global refugee crisis in post-World War II history, inclusive of the Palestinian exodus. At least 2.5 million Iraqis have been internally displaced while 2.2 million more are refugees in neighbouring countries. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society reports that in October 2007 alone 368,479 Iraqis were uprooted from their homes inside Iraq, while an estimated 60,000 Iraqis flee the country to neighbouring states on a monthly basis.
* 50,000 Iraqi refugees have been forced into prostitution.
* 2,000 Iraqi doctors have been killed since 2003, most of which were assassinated.
* At least 345 Iraqi academics have been assassinated since 2003.
* At least 210 Iraqi lawyers and judges have been killed since 2003.
* At least 282 Iraqi journalists have been killed since 2003.
* Since the US invasion, 43 per cent of Iraqis live in abject poverty on less than $1 a day; 60-70 per cent of the workforce is unemployed.
* More than six million Iraqis are in need of urgent humanitarian aid, while four million are in urgent need of food aid.
* Child malnutrition has increased exponentially: half of Iraq's children under five are now malnourished.
* Child mortality has increased 150 per cent since 2003.
* Seventy per cent of the population is denied adequate access to drinking water while 80 per cent lack basic sanitation.
* Of Iraq's 180 large hospitals, 90 per cent lack essential supplies.
* More than 800,000 schoolchildren have stopped attending primary school and only half who complete primary school continue their education. More than 220,000 refugee children in neighbouring countries are denied the right to education.
* All public services in Iraq have collapsed. Already in 2006, 40 per cent of Iraq's skilled personnel had left the country.
* The war is costing $720 million per day, or $500,000 per minute.
* Attacks by the Iraqi resistance on US forces run to more than 5,500 per month.
source: The B Russell s Tribunal, www.brusselstribunal.org
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/889/sc2.htm