NEW YORK: The United Nations today announced that the death toll in Syria has reached 5,000, up from the previous figure of 4,000. “The situation in Syria is unbearable and a crime against humanity,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Na Bilay today told the UN Security Council in a closed session. “There are 300 children among the dead,” she said. “This number also includes executed soldiers who refused to fire on demonstrators and civilians, but it does not include members of the army, the security forces or other armed groups.” Syria continues to face a popular uprising, now stretching into its eighth month, to goal of which is the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The HR Commissioner also recommended that the case be transferred to the International Criminal Court, underlining the seriousness of the ongoing torture and killing inside Syria. “The international community must take action against the crackdown in Syria,” Bilay continued. “At the very least we owe this to the people who are being suppressed and killed.”
