27 August 2014
Ongoing conflict in Syria failure of international community
The number of people killed in Syria is double the number documented a year ago, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay announced, criticising the international community for its failure to stop the ‘killers, destroyers and torturers’ that have torn the country apart.
In a third report on Syria carried out on behalf of the UN Human Rights Office, data specialists identified 191,369 people killed between March 2011 and the end of April 2014. ‘Tragically, it is probably an underestimate of the real total number of people killed during the first three years of this murderous conflict’, Mrs. Pillay said. She warned that with numerous other armed conflicts, the crisis in Syria ‘has dropped off the international radar’, adding it was ‘scandalous’ that the predicament of so many people is no longer attracting attention, and allowed to continue with no end in sight, affecting neighbouring Iraq and Lebanon. ‘The killers, destroyers and torturers in Syria have been empowered and emboldened by the international paralysis’, she said.
In a similar message she delivered to the Security Council, Ms. Pillay castigated the body for failing to take action to stop the violence, such as by referring the case of Syria to the International Criminal Court.
She also called on governments take serious measures to halt the fighting and deter the crimes, and above all ‘stop fuelling this monumental, and wholly avoidable, human catastrophe’ by providing weapons and other military supplies.
Source: UN News Centre | More than 191,000 people killed in Syria with ‘no end in sight’ – UN
Source: UN Human Rights | Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights | Pillay castigates “paralysis” on Syria, as new UN study indicates over 191,000 people killed | 22 August 2014