March 16, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 7, 1429

BAGHDAD: The sectarian bloodshed, which has ravaged Iraq since 2006, is now running at a “much lower” level, offering a chance for leaders to push national reconciliation, a top UN official said on Saturday.

Staffan de Mistura, special representative in Iraq of the UN Secretary-General, said the country was no longer experiencing the high levels of communal bloodletting that followed an attack on a revered shrine in February 2006, despite “some horrific acts in the past few weeks.” De Mistura acknowledged a recent spike in violence but asserted that none of this was of “intra-sectarian nature”.

“The (sectarian) violence is much lower. There is no question about it,” he told reporters as he presented the 12th report by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq on the state of human rights in Iraq between July 1, 2007 and December 31, 2007.

“See what happened after Samarra and see what is happening today,” he said, referring to the attack on Al-Askari shrine in Samarra in February 2006 that sparked brutal conflict across Iraq.

Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been slaughtered since the shrine attack while millions have been displaced.

The top UN official in Iraq also said that one of the key reasons for the overall drop in violence has been a general fatigue factor among the people.

“We are seeing among Iraqis a feeling of tiredness,” De Mistura said, adding that the controversial US military “surge” and the ceasefire announced by Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had also helped reduce violence.

The overall fall in bloodshed, he added, was an opportunity for Iraqi leaders to push ahead with national reconciliation.

“This is the window of opportunity for Iraq. The fact that there has been reduction in violence. Despite a spike of horrific acts there is still lot of improvement ... it should be interpreted as an opportunity. It does not last long,” he said.The Unami report, meanwhile, acknowledged a marked decrease in violent attacks during the period under review and particularly from October to December 2007.

But it cautioned that armed groups continue to target civilians through suicide bombings, car bombs and other attacks.

Violent attacks are prompting Iraqis to continue flee from their homes, the report said, adding that as of December the number of internally displaced Iraqis had reached 2.5 million, while the number of those who have fled the country has reached 1.9 million.

Major cities such as Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Baquba, Fallujah and Kirkuk remained affected by violence.

De Mistura regretted that the United Nations had no statistical data on violent deaths of Iraqi civilians and urged the Iraqi government to provide such information from its health ministry.

“It is a huge problem,” added Unami’s human rights officer Ivana Vuco, referring to the lack of access to Iraqi government’s statistics on civilian casualties.

The report also expressed concern about civilian deaths that continued to be caused by US air strikes.

It said during the period under review, 123 civilian deaths were reported due to air strikes.

De Mistura acknowledged the US military’s argument that many of the civilian casualties occur as insurgents often use civilians as “human shields.” He said US-run prisons were seeing “reduction of detainee overcrowding”, but added that the number of juvenile detainees had increased.

The Unami report, on the other hand, said the number of detainees had risen in Iraqi prisons, peaking at 21,112 in November 2007.

The report said the ongoing violence continued to hamper efforts to research and assess the situation of women.

It said “honour killings” of women continued to be a regular occurrence in the country’s Kurdish north, otherwise the most peaceful area in Iraq.—AFP