U.N. slams ‘paralysis’ on Syria as death toll soars

Unite Nations rights chief Navi Pillay slammed what she called an “international paralysis” towards the war in Syria which has claimed more than 191,000 lives, Reuters news agency reported.

A U.N. report, based on data from four groups and the government that were cross-checked, reflects a reality of killing and torture while the civil war has “dropped off the international radar,” Pillay said.

This marks the first figure issued by the U.N. human rights office since July 2013, during which the death toll was reported to have surpassed 100,000.

“With additional killings reported from earlier periods, in addition to the new killings that have taken place, the total is more than double the number documented a year ago,” Pillay said in a statement.

“Nevertheless, as the report explains, tragically it is probably an underestimate of the real total number of people killed during the first three years of this murderous conflict.”

An additional 51,953 killings that were reported lacked sufficient information and were excluded from the analysis, said the report issued in Geneva. A further significant number may not have been reported by any of the five sources, it added.

The highest number of documented killings were recorded in Rural Damascus province (39,393), followed by Aleppo (31,932), Homs (28,186), Idlib (20,040), Daraa (18,539) and Hama (14,690).

Pillay repeated her call for referring alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by all sides in Syria’s conflict to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

(With AFP and AP)