Syria accuses Navi Pillay of bias

The Syrian government headed by president Bashar al-Assad has claimed that 6,143 Syrian citizens have been killed by "terrorist groups" (the opposition) and 1,590 have been kidnapped. The UN estimates at least 9000 people have been killed since protests began in March last year. The Syrian government's claim is contained in a letter from its foreign ministry to the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, in which it accuses her of bias and choosing "to compile lies and fabrications and market them as if they were facts without bothering to verify them". An excerpt from the letter reads: "It is really strange that she used the UN human and financial resources against Syria, based on lies and calls outside her jurisdiction...It would have been better had the commissioner stuck to objectivity and professionalism as it would have helped in preventing killing more Syrians,'' added the ministry. The commissioner has rejected to consider the acts of terrorist groups as crimes against humanity, although all standards of identifying crimes against humanity apply to them, and chose instead to level this accusation at the state which is doing its duty in protecting its own people...Syria is committed to its responsibility in probing all allegations of human rights violations, but the commissioner hasn't shared any of the allegations it received, nor has it worked to provide national or even peaceful solutions, which clearly means that the commissioner has to review her stances on Syria."