UN rights chief says violence in Syria ‘deplorable’

Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said 1,100 people may have been killed and 10,000 people detained during three months of popular unrest.

“It is utterly deplorable for any government to attempt to bludgeon its population into submission, using tanks, artillery and snipers,” she said in a statement.

“I urge the government to halt this assault on its own people’s most fundamental human rights,” she continued.

The former UN war crimes judge urged Syrian authorities to allow a fact-finding mission into the country to investigate all allegations of atrocities, including Syrian state television reports that 120 members of the security forces had been killed in the north western city of Jisr ul-Shughour near the Turkish border.

Jisr al-Shughour

Residents say 2,000 elite troops and 40 tanks from the Syrian army’s 4th division – led by President Assad’s younger brother Maher al-Assad – have encircled Jisr al-Shughour, prompting the majority of its 50,000 people to flee.

The government had previously said it would take “firm and forceful” action after it claimed 120 troops were killed and mutilated by “armed gangs” during multiple attacks. But activists and eyewitnesses say the officials were killed by a helicopter gunship because they refused to open fire on a funeral procession.

Jisr al-Shughour is practically empty. People were not going to sit and be slaughtered like lambs. Syrian refugee

A spokesperson for the UN refugee agency said 1,577 Syrians had arrived in Turkey and were sheltering in a tent encampment at Yayladagi. Thousands more have fled to neighbouring villages along the Syrian side of the border.

Turkish authorities have prevented refugees from talking to the media, but one man who gave his name as Mohammad told Reuters: “Jisr al-Shughour is practically empty. People were not going to sit and be slaughtered like lambs.”

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who had previously enjoyed good relations with Syria, said: “We will always keep our doors open to our Syrian brothers and sisters.”

He added that Turkey could not accept “another Hama,” in reference to the massacre of up to 40,000 people in 1982, which was orchestrated by President Assad’s father Hafez.

‘Mutilated’ teenage protester

Meanwhile video footage has emerged showing the mutilated body of 15-year-old Thamer al-Sahri, who was arrested in April in Saida near Deraa. He was detained alongside his friend 13-year-old Hamza al-Khateeb, whose body was also mutilated.

The footage, which shows al-Sahri’s body riddled with bullets, missing an eye, and several teeth, caused outrage in Jeeza where hundreds of residents took to the street on Wednesday, the day the body was released to the family.

The revelations of Hamza’s death in late May coincided with intense unrest in Syria, with solidarity demonstrations spreading to over 200 different locations.

Read more: Tortured 13 year old a symbol for Syrian resistance 

UN action

Britain, France, Germany and Portugal have put forward a UN draft resolution to the Security Council that condemns the Syrian regime’s systematic violation of human rights but does not authorise concrete military action. It demands an immediate end to violence and access for humanitarian workers.

“The world cannot be silent when every day people in Syria, who are doing nothing but standing up for their legitimate human and civil rights, are being killed and tortured,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said.

But the motion, which calls for an inclusive Syrian-led peace process, has been opposed by Russia, a current major arms supplier to Syria and former cold war ally.

“We do not believe the Syrian issue is a subject for consideration by the Security Council, let alone the adoption of some kind of resolution,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said.

“The situation in this country, in our view, does not present a threat to international peace and security,” he continued.

The position of other countries on the Security Council – like China and India – is also uncertain.

The draft resolution is expected to be voted on by the end of the week.