UN: Death toll in Syria rises to more than 2,900
BNO Newswire - Friday, October 7th, 2011 at 2:19 PM
The death toll in Syria has risen to more than 2,900 since pro-democracy protests began earlier this year, the United Nations human rights office reported on Thursday.
Rupert Colville, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said the total number of people killed has surpassed 2,900, according to a list of individual names the agency has compiled. Previous estimates had placed the toll at about 2,700.
Senior UN officials have repeatedly voiced concern about the situation in Syria, where large-scale protests – part of a broader wave of uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa – have been held since March. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has repeatedly called on the Syrian Government to end its crackdown and stressed that the international community has a moral obligation to try to prevent further bloodshed.
On Tuesday, the UN Security Council failed to adopt a draft resolution which strongly condemned Syrian authorities for their crackdown after Russia and China exercised their vetoes. Representatives of both countries defended their decision, saying that the draft text would exacerbate tensions rather than lead to a resolution of the crisis.
The UN Human Rights Council has ordered an inquiry into the violence after an earlier UN fact-finding mission outlined a litany of Government abuses, including murders, enforced disappearances and acts of torture. Three experts have been appointed to carry out the probe.
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