By JAMES KELLER

VANCOUVER — Terrorist violence is on the decline around the world, contrary to belief, says a new report by researchers at Simon Fraser University.

The report released yesterday said previous data suggesting steep increases in global terrorism were distorted by the high death toll from the war in Iraq, hiding the fact that terrorist violence is actually on the decline.

The report, prepared by the Human Security Report Project at SFU, argues that fatalities from terrorist attacks around the world have actually decreased by 40 per cent since 2001.

The project examined data from three U.S.-based research centres, all of which suggested increased terrorist activity.

But Andrew Mack, director of the project, said those data counted civilian deaths from the continuing conflict in Iraq when, he argues, typically civilian casualties in civil war are considered war crimes.

“How many people are getting killed by terrorists depends on how you define terrorism,” Prof. Mack said from New York, where he released the report, Human Security Brief 2007.

“What is happening in Iraq is totally driving the global terrorism toll. … This way of looking at terrorism is slightly unusual and is inconsistent.”

For example, the U.S. data didn’t include civilian deaths from conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa, such as in Darfur, which Prof. Mack said are similar to what is happening in Iraq.

Because of inconsistencies, the report argues that civilian deaths in Iraq shouldn’t be counted in terrorism figures.

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