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                  UN Rights Panel: Violations in Syria Growing

   by VOA News

   An independent panel of U.N. investigators says the human rights
   situation in Syria has sharply deteriorated, with "gross violations"
   growing in number, pace and scale.
   The panel's Brazilian chairman, Paulo Pinheiro, told the U.N. Human
   Rights Council in Geneva Monday that "egregious violations" happen so
   often that his team has not been able to investigate them all.
   He also said there is an increasing number of Islamist militants in
   Syria, and that their presence tends to push rebels opposed to Syrian
   President Bashar al-Assad toward more radical positions.
   Syria's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Faysal Khabbaz
   Hamoui, criticized the report.  He said members of the international
   community are working to make the crisis in Syria worse.
   What began as protests against Assad's rule in March, 2011, and a
   subsequent government crackdown has progressed to daily clashes between
   Syrian forces and rebels.
   The U.N. panel says the fighting amounts to a non-international armed
   conflict, and that there are "reasonable grounds" to believe government
   forces, pro-Assad militia groups and anti-government fighters have all
   committed war crimes and human rights violations.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/un_rights_panel_violations_in_syria_g
   rowing/1509286.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/un_rights_panel_violations_in_syria_growing/1509286.html