After almost two years of having no idea what the death toll in the Syrian civil war might be, the UN has waded in with an estimate that seriously ups the ante.
Till now the most accessible estimates have been from the London based "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights," a one man show run by Rami Abdul Rahman, a guy who assembles the numbers while working in his wife's dress shop.
It's safe to say that most observers of the Observatory were somewhat skeptical of Mr. Rahman's statistics. For one thing, he is an avowed opponent of the Assad regime and therefore had ample motive for inflating his figures.
Secondly, because the nature of his in-country network could not be independently verified, it was assumed in many quarters that it amounted to little more than wishful thinking. The consensus was, until yesterday, that the death toll publicized by the Observatory was to a greater or lesser extent exaggerated.
So here comes the UN, and bumps Abdul Rahman's numbers by a healthy 30%!
What is the UN up to? Does this signal a more activist role for the UN? Note that this information comes directly from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. Would her office be foregrounding this issue if there wasn't pressure from certain security council members to raise the profile of the Syrian conflict as a prelude to more explicit involvement?
Look for anti-Assad resolutions coming from the UN soon.
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