‘5,000 Syrians killed every month’
18 July 2013 11:20 PM GMT
An estimated 5,000 Syrians are dying every month in the country’s civil war and refugees are fleeing at a rate not seen since the 1994 Rwanda genocide, UN officials said.
‘In Syria today, serious human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity are the rule,’ said Ivan Simonovic, the assistant secretary-general for human rights, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
He added that ‘the extremely high rate of killings ... demonstrates the drastic deterioration of this conflict.’ UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres said two-thirds of the nearly 1.8 million Syrian refugees known to the agency have fled since the beginning of 2013, an average of over 6,000 daily. ‘We have not seen a refugee outflow escalate at such a frightening rate since the Rwandan genocide almost 20 years ago,’ he said. UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said at least 6.8 million Syrians require urgent humanitarian assistance and accused the government and opposition of deliberately failing their obligation to protect civilians.
‘In Syria today, serious human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity are the rule,’ said Ivan Simonovic, the assistant secretary-general for human rights, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.
He added that ‘the extremely high rate of killings ... demonstrates the drastic deterioration of this conflict.’ UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres said two-thirds of the nearly 1.8 million Syrian refugees known to the agency have fled since the beginning of 2013, an average of over 6,000 daily. ‘We have not seen a refugee outflow escalate at such a frightening rate since the Rwandan genocide almost 20 years ago,’ he said. UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said at least 6.8 million Syrians require urgent humanitarian assistance and accused the government and opposition of deliberately failing their obligation to protect civilians.
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