Every few weeks since March 2011, when conflict first erupted in Syria, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has released updates on the estimated number of people killed. Today, the UN human rights commissioner put that number at 60,000.
This is a grim milestone. To put this figure in context, an estimated 30,000 were killed in the 2011 Libyan civil war; an estimated 40,000 civilians were killed in the waning days of the Sri Lanka civil war in 2009; and over 100,0000 people were killed during the Iraq war.
This is a grim milestone.
“Do not expect just 25,000 people to die next year — maybe 100,000 will die,” joint Arab League/UN Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said on Sunday. “The pace is increasing.”
2013 will be a very tough year for Syria.
UPDATE: Here is the report, grimly titled “Preliminary Statistical Analysis of Documentation of Killings in Syrian Arab Republic,” upon which the 60,000 figure is based.