Syria Accuses U.N.'s Pillay of 'Flagrant Bias'
The Syrian regime on Tuesday accused U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay of "flagrant bias" a day after she warned violations in the war-torn country had reached "horrific dimensions".
The Syrian delegation to the U.N.'S Human Rights Council "strongly denounced the flagrant bias of Navi Pillay over the situation" in Syria, state news agency SANA reported.
Pillay "blames the Syrian government and ignores the human rights violations committed on a grand scale by al-Qaida, the Al-Nusra Front and Islamist extremist groups," it said.
On Monday, Pillay decried the "horrific" level of rights violations in Syria, as the U.N.'s top rights body decided to hold an urgent debate on the situation in the country.
"A humanitarian, political and social disaster is already upon us, and what looms is truly a nightmare," Pillay told diplomats as she opened a Rights Council session in Geneva.
She warned the rights violations in Syria had "reached horrific dimensions," describing the situation in the country as "an intolerable affront to the human conscience".
"Confronted with the flagrant disregard of international law and human life on every side, I feel utter dismay," she said, lamenting that "we in the international community are failing to meet our fundamental obligations to the victims."
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog says more than 94,000 people have been killed since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011.
Source: Agence France Presse
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