Syria uprising: UN says protest death toll hits 3,000
15 Oct BBC
The United Nations says 3,000 people have been killed in Syria in the
seven months of protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said at least 187
children were among the dead.
The UN also says hundreds of people have also been arrested since the
protests began seven months ago.
Activists say at least 11 more protesters were shot dead by security
forces as thousands rallied on Friday.
The demonstrations were called “Free Soldiers” - a reference to
several thousand who have defected.
They called on those in the military to abandon President Assad’s
regime and join a dissident army.
The UN report said 100 people had died in the past 10 days. The
government in Damascus blames armed “terrorist gangs” for the trouble,
and says 1,100 members of the security forces have been killed.
Emergency meeting Six Gulf nations have demanded an emergency meeting of
Arab foreign ministers on Sunday to discuss the ongoing unrest in Syria.
The 22-member Arab League has not yet approved the request but such
meetings need only the approval of two members to take place.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) statement called for “steps that
could help end the bloodshed and halt the machine of violence”.
The GCC said the humanitarian situation had deteriorated sharply
since a meeting of Arab foreign ministers on 13 September that had
called on Syria to “immediately stop the bloodshed”.
Ms Pillay warned that Syria’s “ruthless repression” threatened to
spark “full-blown civil war”. “The onus is on all members of the
international community to take protective action in a collective
manner,” she said.
UN spokesman Rupert Colville added that hundreds of Syrians had been
detained and tortured or had disappeared. He said that families who
supported the opposition had been targeted by the Syrian government both
inside the country and abroad.
Resolution vetoed A European-drafted UN resolution threatening
“measures” against the Syrian regime if it did not end its repression of
the protests was vetoed this month by China and Russia. But both Beijing
and Moscow have also recently urged Damascus to adopt promised reforms
swiftly - a sign, correspondents say, that they too may be losing
patience with the Assad government. Mr Colville said that the diplomatic
moves so far were “not producing results and people continue to be
killed every single day”.
He added: “Just hoping things will get better isn’t good enough,
clearly.”
In its reports of violence from Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights group said that at least 36 people had been killed,
including 25 soldiers.
The worst violence was in the north-western town of Banash. It said
there were also deaths in Deraa, south of Damascus, and the central city
of Homs, which has been one of the biggest flashpoints of the uprising. |