SWITZERLAND: Syria must not become new Bosnia, U.N. rights boss says

Record ID: 281552

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: Syria must not become new Bosnia, U.N. rights boss says
  • Date: 18th October 2012
  • Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (OCTOBER 18, 2012) (REUTERS) U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, NAVI PILLAY, ARRIVING FOR PRESS CONFERENCE IN GENEVA JOURNALISTS AT PRESS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS NAVI PILLAY SAYING: "The memories of what happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina should be sufficiently fresh to warn us all of the danger of
  • Embargoed: 2nd November 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAE52JJ6W3OLGX1BNBAIZD4GAHL
  • Story Text: The memories of Bosnia less than 20 years ago should remind the world of the danger of allowing the situation in Syria to escalate says the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.


    The top United Nations human rights official said on Thursday (October 18) the situation in Syria was reminiscent of Bosnia's sectarian war and she called on world powers to unite in trying to halt the bloodshed.
    "The memories of what happened in Bosnia and Herzegovina should be sufficiently fresh to warn us all of the danger of allowing Syria to descend into all-out sectarian conflict," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in Geneva.
    The July 1995 massacre in Srebrenica was the worst on European soil since World War Two. Dutch U.N. peacekeepers abandoned what had been designated a U.N. safe haven to advancing Bosnian Serb forces who then killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys and bulldozed their corpses into pits.
    "Thousands and thousands of men, women and children have already been killed, injured, tortured, displaced," Pillay said of Syria.
    "It should not take something as drastic as Srebrenica to shake the world into taking serious action to stop this type of conflict.
    "By remaining divided, the international community is enabling the continuation of the suffering and helping create the circumstances for a wider regional conflict."
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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