Overflowing morgue testament to Iraq's mayhem

[Barrett808]

Overflowing morgue testament to Iraq's mayhem
27 Jul 2005 13:31:39 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Luke Baker

BAGHDAD, July 27 (Reuters) - If anyone had any lingering doubts about the full extent of violence in Iraq, they need only visit Baghdad's morgue.

The fridges and autopsy rooms of the beige stone block are crammed full of corpses, some of them so badly mutilated or decomposed that identification is nearly impossible.

Every day, around 30 new bodies arrive, the latest victims of a two-year wave of war, crime and insurgency that has left coroners struggling to keep up with the chaos.

All are classified as "suspicious deaths" and the vast majority have been shot, says Faik Amin Baker, the director of the Medical Legal Institute, which oversees the morgue.

More alarming still is that these are only the bodies that require an autopsy; they do not include those that die of natural causes or in attacks where the cause of death is clear.

"Before the war we used to get maybe 250 bodies a month. Now it is 800 or 900 a month from the Baghdad area alone," says Baker, who trained at Guy's Hospital in London and has overseen operations at the morgue for the past 15 years.

"The situation has worsened dramatically. We cannot cope."

(more)

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/BAK637147.htm

[NNN0LHI]

1. Let Freedom Reign! n/t

[sintax]

2. This is horrific

and nothing short of war crimes. The death toll dating back through the sanctions (Including 8 brutal years of the Clinton Admin.) will be in the millions.