Armed Conflicts Casualties 2012: Mexico Places Second Behind Syria Oscar Lopez - Latin Times
go to original December 11, 2013

A woman walks past crosses erected in memory of women killed in Ciudad Juarez in Mexico's state of Chihuahua on the Mexico-United States border with El Paso, Texas. (Reuters)

A new study of war casualties in 2012 has placed Mexico second only to Syria in the number of deaths reported last year. The study from a think tank in Geneva, Switzerland, reported that a total of 95,000 people died last year as a result of armed conflicts, most of whom were civilians. Syria had the highest number of deaths at 55,000 while Mexico came second with 9,000 and Afghanistan third with 7,500. Hundreds of thousands more were injured in conflicts around the world.

The report was launched on Tuesday by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, a joint programme of the Graduate Institute and the University of Geneva. The report found that despite the high number of civilian casualties, Mexico, like Turkey and Thailand, does not recognize itself as being involved in an armed conflict. Moreover, few charges have been laid for the atrocities around the world because there is a lack of agreement over what constitutes and armed conflict in the Geneva Conventions.

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