Syria on cusp of civil war, death toll 4,000-UN

Bashar al-Assad

GENEVA,  (Reuters) – Syria is on the cusp of  civil war as rebel soldiers and others take up arms against the  government of President Bashar al-Assad, the top U.N. human  rights official said yesterday.

Bashar al-Assad

High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told a news  conference 4,000 people were already known to have died in the  unrest in Syria this year. “But really the reliable information  coming to us is that it is much more than that,” she added.

“I have said that as soon as there were more and more  defectors threatening to take up arms – I said this in August  before the Security Council – there was going to be a civil war.  At the moment that’s how I am characterising this,” she said. Later, her spokesman Rupert Colville clarified her remarks.

“It is definitely heading that way, with more and more  reports of armed resistance to the government forces. It is on  the cusp, but in these circumstances it is hard to say  definitively at what point it becomes civil war,” he told  Reuters.

The U.N. Human Rights Council is holding an emergency  session on Syria today following a report by an independent  U.N. commission of inquiry that said Syrian forces have  committed crimes against humanity including executions, torture  and rape.

“I intend to add my voice to the finding of the commission  of inquiry with regard to evidence pointing to the commission of  crimes against humanity,” said Pillay, a former U.N. war crimes  judge who will address the one-day session in Geneva.

Pillay noted that she had called in August for the Security  Council to refer Syria to the prosecutor of the International  Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity.

“In my own view, based on our own monitoring of the  situation, there is need for prosecution of perpetrators at the  highest level for crimes against humanity,” she said.

 “SANCTIONS WILL BITE”       

The United States, European Union and Arab League  blacklisted Syrian VIPs and companies yesterday, hoping to  force an end to the eight-month military crackdown on  pro-democracy protesters challenging Assad’s rule.

“I want to endorse what was said to me by one of the Arab  state ambassadors who is sponsoring the special session  tomorrow, and that is of course they also feel totally hopeless,  they feel that the sanctions will bite because the wealth is  concentrated on the family around him,” Pillay said, in a  reference to Assad.

“And they feel that the momentum has to be maintained. So  the council session is important, my statements are important,  eventually to get to the Security Council and also to get the  message to those who are holding back on drastic action by the  Security Council, so they will also understand this is serious.”

Russia and China, which both have oil concessions in Syria,  teamed up in October to veto a Western-backed Security Council  resolution condemning Assad’s government for violence.

The two powers, joined by Cuba, have been trying to tone  down an EU resolution being presented at the rights forum on  Friday, diplomats said.

The original EU draft text, supported by a host of Arab  countries as well as the United States, strongly condemned Syria  and called for the U.N. report on crimes against humanity to be  sent to the Security Council.