http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6495753.stm

Last Updated: Monday, 26 March 2007, 15:53 GMT 16:53 UK

Iraqi deaths survey 'was robust'
By Owen Bennett-Jones
BBC World Service

Iraqis search for survivors in rubble in Ramadi, western Baghdad after a gun battle between US marines and insurgents
The survey estimated that 601,000 deaths were the result of violence, mostly gunfire.
The British government was advised against publicly criticising a report estimating that 655,000 Iraqis had died due to the war, the BBC has learnt.

Iraqi Health Ministry figures put the toll at less than 10% of the total in the survey, published in the Lancet.

But the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific adviser said the survey's methods were "close to best practice" and the study design was "robust".

Another expert agreed the method was "tried and tested".

... a memo by the MoD's Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Roy Anderson, on 13 October, states: "The study design is robust and employs methods that are regarded as close to "best practice" in this area, given the difficulties of data collection and verification in the present circumstances in Iraq."

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancet_surveys_of_mortality_before_and_after_the_2003_invasion_of_Iraq - 655,000 deaths
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust - 6,000,000 deaths

 http://www.thelancet.com/webfiles/images/journals/lancet/s0140673606694919.pdf
 http://www.zmag.org/lancet.pdf