Encountering ‘Death Counts’ in the Final
Phase of the Eelam War
War refugees (file photo)by G. H. Peiris-February 7, 2014, 8:54 pm
Continued from yesterday
3.4. Satellite Imagery Interpretation Method: Applications
There are several sets of satellite image-based estimates of the war zone population that are of relevance to the subject of the ‘Vanni civilian death toll’. The estimates so derived by the UN Country Team (referred to in p. 4, above) were: 36,378 in IDP Camps on 25 February, and 267,618 in the NFZ2 on 28 February. Again, based evidently on the same methodology, the UNOCHA placed the total population in the war zone (whether the total includes the combatants is not clear) on May 6, 2009 at approximately 70,000 to 80,000.
