Post by Teddy Bear on Oct 5, 2006 22:52:31 GMT
Imagine that you were a journalist doing your best to present the facts as accurately and fairly as possible. You are given the task of covering the recent conflict in Lebanon. You are presented with casualty figures from various sources there which consistently show a high proportion of civilian deaths to Hezbollah militants.
You are aware that the higher number of civilian casualties any side will claim, particularly if they're children, will have a far greater impact to affect public opinion worldwide to support one side or the other. This strategy has been employed many times by Palestinian terrorists who oftentimes staged 'deaths' for the media, known as Pallywood, or purposefully engage in combat while shielded by children, or using residential areas. It was even picked up by bloggers that the one particular man in Lebanon who had raised a dead child aloft in mourning, had been the same man who had done a similar 'show' in Palestine.
Surely ones scepticism would be aroused when after Israel had dropped leaflets warning residents to flee prior to bombing, there should be so many civilian casualties. Either they were kept there by force, or planted there afterwards, but the claim that they were too poor to run somehow doesn't ring true, but much of the media has chosen to accept it.
In any event, you are also aware that Hezbollah forces do not wear uniforms or any kind of garb that identify them as combatants. So are bodies automatically classed as 'civilian'?
As you can see, to any honest journalist. counting the dead in that conflict is no easy matter to be accurate, which is precisely what an Associated Press article identified:
But for the dishonest journalists at the BBC, who have little regard for accuracy, this doesn't present any problem. Which is why at the end of one of their articles they can present the figures in this way:
You are aware that the higher number of civilian casualties any side will claim, particularly if they're children, will have a far greater impact to affect public opinion worldwide to support one side or the other. This strategy has been employed many times by Palestinian terrorists who oftentimes staged 'deaths' for the media, known as Pallywood, or purposefully engage in combat while shielded by children, or using residential areas. It was even picked up by bloggers that the one particular man in Lebanon who had raised a dead child aloft in mourning, had been the same man who had done a similar 'show' in Palestine.
Surely ones scepticism would be aroused when after Israel had dropped leaflets warning residents to flee prior to bombing, there should be so many civilian casualties. Either they were kept there by force, or planted there afterwards, but the claim that they were too poor to run somehow doesn't ring true, but much of the media has chosen to accept it.
In any event, you are also aware that Hezbollah forces do not wear uniforms or any kind of garb that identify them as combatants. So are bodies automatically classed as 'civilian'?
As you can see, to any honest journalist. counting the dead in that conflict is no easy matter to be accurate, which is precisely what an Associated Press article identified:
Counting the Lebanon dead not so easy
STEVEN R. HURST and SAM F. GHATTAS
Associated Press
BEIRUT, Lebanon - In the rocky hills and isolated villages of southern Lebanon, counting the dead from Israeli airstrikes and artillery has become a dangerous and often imprecise task.
The Israeli bombing of Qana became a textbook case Thursday when a new look at the civilian death toll in this week's Israeli airstrike showed it was about half the initial report.
The numbers of dead have become especially important to Israel and Lebanon, as well as to Hezbollah, in the battle for world opinion. With reported Lebanese civilian deaths running at about 20 for each Israeli killed in Hezbollah missile strikes, Lebanon would appear to have the upper hand.
The Qana casualties were re-examined after Human Rights Watch issued a report late Wednesday saying 28 people died in the village Sunday after Israeli jets hit it - not 54 as the New York-based organization initially reported in the immediate aftermath of the attack. At the time, The Associated Press reported 56 were dead.
"I've worked for Human Rights Watch for a decade. This is one of the most difficult conflicts to cover," said Peter Bouckaert, director of emergencies for the organization.
"It's very hard and dangerous to reach many of these places," he said of the sites of airstrikes. "So, we often have to rely on phone calls to the mayor and officials to get this kind of information."
The southern village of Srifa provides another example of the difficulty of getting hard facts. On July 19, Lebanese media reported 25 to 30 people were believed to have been in 15 houses destroyed in an airstrike. Their fate remains unknown, and the casualties have not been added to the AP's count.
Even in far safer and more organized environments, death tolls often decrease dramatically, some over long periods of time.
Two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the official count of the dead peaked at about 6,700 amid confusion and calls to authorities from frantic relatives. A year later, that number dropped to 2,792. And in January 2004, the New York City medical examiner put the final number of those killed at 2,749.
Human Rights Watch said it had discovered the discrepancy in the Qana count as part of a larger investigation of all civilian deaths in Lebanon. The bombardment of Qana and pictures of dead children pulled from the wreckage led to an international uproar.
The base line for the Qana death count was a list of 63 people who local officials said had taken refuge in the building that was hit by Israeli jets. After the attack, 27 bodies were taken to the government hospital in the southern port city of Tyre. Nine people were known to have survived, and the remaining 27 were reported dead - buried under the rubble of the three-story structure. That resulted in the Human Rights Watch initial report of 54 dead.
The Lebanese Red Cross gave a figure of 56 at the time, which AP used in its reports. An AP reporter counted 27 bodies on the day of the bombing at the hospital in Tyre.
The Human Rights Watch second look at the figures showed that 28 were known dead - the 27 originally killed and one wounded person who died. The organization was able to account for 22 survivors, leaving 13 people unaccounted for of the 63 people reported in the building at the time of the attack.
The initial toll of 54 included those missing immediately after the attack, but Human Rights Watch now says it does not believe the 13 people who remain unaccounted for were killed.
"Families of the missing aren't sure where those 13 people are. It is possible there still is someone buried under the rubble ... but recovery teams are skeptical" of that, Bouckaert told AP.
When asked about the death toll figures on Thursday, George Kitane, head of Lebanese Red Cross paramedics, also said 28 people, including 19 children, had been confirmed killed. He said the organization had been told bodies remain under the rubble, "but we will need bulldozers for such work."
Civil defense official Abdel-Raouf Jradi, who was in charge of the rescue operation, confirmed Thursday that 27 bodies were taken to the Tyre hospital from Qana that day. All the bodies were identified; they included 15 children under age 12, including a 9-month-old baby. A 95-year-old man also was among the dead.
The discrepancy in the Red Cross and civil defense figures could not be explained.
With the revised totals from Qana, the AP count shows at least 520 Lebanese have been killed since the fighting began three weeks ago, including 449 civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 25 Lebanese soldiers and at least 50 Hezbollah guerrillas. Four of the civilians were reported dead Thursday in airstrikes. Hezbollah also reported four deaths, but did not say when the fighters were killed.
AP assembles its count based on information from the Lebanese Health Ministry, but adds victims not counted by those officials but confirmed dead by reporters, families and police in remote regions. The Health Ministry only counts bodies that reach morgues.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said that more than 900 civilians have been killed and 3,000 wounded.
When his office was asked to amplify on the statement, it referred a caller to a Web site run by the Higher Relief Council. It put the number of dead civilians at 860.
The council is part of the Lebanese prime minister's office and deals with calamities. It assembles numbers of dead and wounded from the Health Ministry, the police and other state agencies.
Many deaths are not reported to the Health Ministry - for example when victims are quickly and privately buried with no official involvement. The Higher Relief Council number, however, does include some of those figures when they are reported by police.
On the Israeli side, the government and army have confirmed 68 dead - 41 soldiers as well as 27 civilians killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.
The Israeli casualty count was believed more reliable, given the smaller numbers involved, the care its army takes in accounting for soldiers and the greater organization of its fighting force and civilian structures.
But for the dishonest journalists at the BBC, who have little regard for accuracy, this doesn't present any problem. Which is why at the end of one of their articles they can present the figures in this way:
More than 1,100 people - mostly civilians - were killed in Lebanon during the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah militants that ended in August.
More than 150 Israelis - mainly soldiers - were killed.