The agency’s chief, Navi Pillay, criticized Western nations, saying that their inaction in the face of the slaughter had “empowered and emboldened” the killers.
In its third report on Syria commissioned by the United Nations, the Human Rights Data Analysis Group identified 191,369 deaths from the start of the conflict in March 2011 to April 2014, more than double the 92,901 deaths cited in the group’s last report, which covered the first two years of the conflict.
“Tragically, it is probably an underestimate of the real total number of people killed during the first three years of this murderous conflict,” Pillay said in a statement that accompanied the report, which observed that many killings in Syria were undocumented.
The report was confined to counting individuals who had been identified by name, along with the date and location of their death, using data from five organizations that was screened to avoid duplication. It did not include nearly 52,000 deaths that were recorded but lacked sufficient detail.
At a briefing later in the day, Rupert Colville, a spokesman for Pillay, said the number of deaths was “indicative” rather than “gospel truth,” adding, “It’s incredibly important that the world has an idea of the scale of the killing.”
Men, including combatants and civilians, accounted for more than 80 percent of the casualties, according to the report. Most of the documented deaths did not specify the age of the victims, but where that information was available, the report identified 8,803 people under the age of 18, including 2,165 children under 10.
Pillay expressed deep regret that “given the onset of so many other armed conflicts in this period of global destabilization, the fighting in Syria and its dreadful impact on millions of civilians has dropped off the international radar.”
Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011 with ISIL Takfiri terrorists currently controlling parts of it in the east.
The Western powers and their regional allies -- especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and, Turkey -- are reportedly supporting the insurgents and terrorists operating inside Syria.
NTJ/MB