adminMore than 14 000 people are estimated to have been detained and at least 300 children are among the dead, Pillay told the 15-member council. She estimated that at least 12 400 have fled into neighbouring countries since the anti-government protests erupted in March.
“It is my estimation that the total number of people killed since the protests began earlier this year is now likely to exceed 5 000. This situation is intolerable,” Pillay said.
But Bashar Jaafari, Syria’s UN ambassador, said the session was part of a “huge conspiracy concocted against Syria since the beginning” and Pillay was neither objective nor fair.
“She is not genuine in all her approach, in the report she presented . . . . She has trespassed her mandate, she allowed herself to be misused in misleading the public opinion by providing information based on allegations collected from 233 defectors,” Jaafari said.
“How could defectors give positive testimonies on the Syrian government? Of course they will give negative testimonies against the Syrian government. They are defectors.”
Responding to Jaafari’s comment, Frej Fenniche, chief of Middle East section of the UN Human Rights Council, told Al Jazeera that the body was in contact with some people within both the Syrian government and its security forces.
“Who said to Jaafari that we are not in contact with people within the army now and with people at a high level within the government? We have contacts with officials on the basis of confidentiality.
“If the government is saying we are lying we can say: ‘OK let (us) go into the country and we will see’.”
The Syrian authorities have not granted human rights observers access into the country.
The Security Council held a private briefing on Syria with Western nations stepping up pressure for the body to condemn the violence. Russia and China vetoed a resolution on the Syria crisis in October.
But Russia’s foreign minister yesterday said that Western accusations that it was blocking UN action condemning the Syrian regime’s crackdown on the opposition were “immoral” because the West was refusing to put pressure on armed opposition groups.
“There are those who refuse to put pressure on the armed, extremist part of the opposition and are at the same time accusing us of blocking the UN Security Council’s work. I would call this position immoral,” Sergei Lavrov said in televised comments.
Germany’s foreign minister on Monday urged those countries blocking UN Security Council action on Syria to change their minds.
“I am really shocked about what I heard about the atrocities in Syria. We owe this to those who lost their lives,” said Guido Westerwelle.
Gerard Araud, France’s UN ambassador, said “history will judge the silence of some and the indifference of others” and that “the honour of the Security Council is at stake”.
Pillay told the meeting that the Syrian protesters had remained largely peaceful.
“However, reports of armed attacks by opposition forces, including the so-called Free Syrian Army, against Syrian forces have increased,” she said. — Al Jazeera.
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