Recording civilian casualties in conflict
Reproduced with the permission of Oxford Research Group
The recent public release by Wikileaks of some 76,000 US military documents, containing hitherto unpublished data on casualties and detailing the conflict in Afghanistan, has re-focused attention on how the civilian casualties of conflict are best documented, and by whom.
In this context, it is particularly timely for Oxford Research Group (ORG) to publish an article, co-written by ORG consultants Hamit Dardagan and John Sloboda, in collaboration with UK Army Colonel, Richard Iron. The article is entitled “In Everyone’s Interest: Recording All The Dead, Not Just Our Own” and will shortly appear in the “British Army Review”, a journal widely read by members of the military in the UK and elsewhere.
The article makes a strong case for military forces collecting and, most crucially, publishing casualty data promptly - within days, rather than months or years. It argues that this is feasible within existing operational structures and that – contrary to the conventional wisdom – such openness is in the interest of all parties. In particular, by making civilian casualties transparent, western militaries can make themselves trusted sources of information rather than be treated with suspicion as they are now.
Verifiable truth will never be arrived at through competing numbers but can only emerge from detailed data that specifies times, places, events and, wherever possible, every individual casualty by name.
ORG has long been calling for transparent and detailed casualty recording to be supported by states and welcomes the recent calls led by Amnesty International for progress on this issue by NATO member governments.