Summary
The researcher whose 1995 FAO survey of infant mortality in Baghdad, and whose 1996-1997 follow-up correcting it, are the central case of Chapter 6 of Debunking the Genocide Allegations (Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War from October 7, 2023 to June 1, 2025, PDF p.153-155). Her surname is printed “Zeidi” once in the work (PDF p.154).
Details
- Zaidi and Fawzi’s survey, conducted in cooperation with the Iraqi Ministry of Agriculture and the Nutrition Research Institute, with interviewers recruited directly by the Iraqi Ministry of Health, found infant mortality rising from 40.6 per 1,000 live births (August 1985-July 1990) to 198.2 (August 1990-August 1995); applied to the whole Iraqi population and fully attributed to sanctions, it gave 576,000 excess child deaths (PDF p.153).
- Her follow-up surveys and interviews in 1996 and 1997 found child mortality of 38 per 1,000, less than one-fifth of the 1995 figure; 65 cases of deaths recorded in 1995 were not reported in 1996, and of 26 women interviewed in both years, nine child death cases documented in 1995 but not 1996 were verified, 13 were unverified, and four miscarriages and births were mistakenly recorded as death cases in 1995 (PDF p.154).
- She concluded “an accurate estimate of child mortality in Iraq is likely somewhere between these two surveys”, and later told Michael Spagat: “My guess is that ‘some’ Iraqi surveyors recorded deaths when they did not take place or the child had died outside the time frame but they specified the opposite.” (PDF p.154)
- Her 1997 correction was cited 11 times in peer-reviewed journals against 83 citations for the 1995 original, and was ignored by the UN and the humanitarian and human rights community (PDF p.151, p.154).
- Her recommendations are recorded: explicit on-site verification even in a small sample portion, training of local enumerators and international experts on objectivity, data quality assurance, and more reliable indicators such as weight-for-age (PDF p.154).
Related pages
Debunking the Genocide Allegations: A Reexamination of the Israel-Hamas War from October 7, 2023 to June 1, 2025, Iraq, UNICEF, Humanitarian bias, Michael Spagat