The right to life of civilians in Iraq has fallen victim to a combination of terrorism, violent crime and military excesses, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said.
Men grieve for victims outside a hospital morgue after a suicide car bomb attack in Baghdad September 14, 2005
More than 80 per cent of the 1,100 bodies brought in to Baghdad's Forensic Institute during the month of July bore evidence of violent death, "far in excess of the averages in previous months," he told the Security Council in a report on the UN's work in Iraq.
"These figures are indicative of a steadily deteriorating trend and provide an important indicator of the absence of protection of the right to life which prevails at this time in Iraq," his report said.
In addition to insurgent attacks, there was continuing concern about military operations by the US-led multinational force in Iraq that have resulted in "civilian deaths, injury and displacement caused by excessive or apparent indiscriminate use of force," he said.
The Iraqi security forces, which often lack training on how to treat persons and property, also use force to excess and conduct mass arrests "often without attention to due process".
First- and second-hand reports from Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Kirkuk and Kurdish areas in northern Iraq "consistently point to the systematic use of torture during interrogations at police stations and within other premises, in many instances belonging to the Ministry of Interior," the report said.
Mr Annan said the United Nations remained concerned about the large number of detainees being held without due process.
He said Iraq's Justice Ministry was holding 7,300 prisoners, the Interior Ministry 2,300 and the Defence Ministry 120. US forces held around 9,600 detainees.
The US military now runs three prisons in Iraq including Abu Ghraib, the site of last year's prisoner abuse scandal.