8 December 2004
 The Lancet claimed Iraqis are now 58 times more likely to die a violent death |
It comes after a study in medical journal the Lancet said nearly 100,000 died following the invasion.
The study, by US and Iraqi researchers, suggested the risk of violent death was higher after the war than before.
UK ministers rejected October's Lancet figures, but have offered no alternative estimate of their own.
Independent inquiry
The letter's publication marks the launch of a new campaign by health charity Medact and the Iraq Body Count project.
Names on the letter include retired General Sir Hugh Beech, the Bishop of Coventry, and an ex-ambassador to Iraq.
It also includes the former assistant chief of the defence staff Lord Garden and writer Harold Pinter.
The signatories urge the prime minister to set up an independent inquiry to establish just how many people have been killed or injured in Iraq along with reasons for the casualties.
Lord Garden told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have taken it [Iraq] over and we are going to try and make it a democratic country.
"We need to show the rest of the world that we are doing it in a proper, legal, moral way and one that can get the hearts and minds of the Arab and Muslim world.
"If we appear to be discarding the people there and saying they are not really important we are going to lose that battle."
Human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger, who is also a signatory, said: "Since they don't want to catalogue the deaths, they are giving the impression that ordinary Iraqi lives are worth less than those of the soldiers and that life is expendable."
"No figures in a war zone are going to be perfect - but that's no excuse for not trying."
The letter to Mr Blair says: "As you know, your government is obliged under international humanitarian law to protect the civilian population during military operations in Iraq, and you have consistently promised to do so.
"However, without counting the dead and injured, no-one can know whether Britain and its coalition partners are meeting these obligations."
The letter's publication marks the launch of a new campaign by health charity Medact and the Iraq Body Count project challenging the government to count casualties.
Co-founder of Iraq Body Count John Sloboda said: "Having made no effort to count Iraqi casualties at all, the British Government now says that reliable figures are not available.
Tally
"We know from our work and the research of others that information from Iraqi hospital, mortuary and other official sources is available and this should be combined with media reports, military contact data and active on-the-ground research to establish the most accurate figures possible."
Medact director Mike Rawson said: "We need casualty estimates to assess the effect of weaponry on the population and to plan health care for the injured. Without information, everyone is working in the dark."
He added that the Iraqi health system should not be left to keep a tally on its own and he argued the US-led coalition had a responsibility to "commission and resource this work themselves".
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw last month said the government believes the most accurate data comes from the Iraqi Ministry of Health which estimated 3,853 civilians killed and 15,517 injured between April and October 2004.
