Syria bludgeoning population "into submission"
GENEVA - The U.N.'s top human rights official has accused Syria of trying to "bludgeon its population into submission" by attacking anti-government protesters with snipers, tanks and artillery.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says her office has received reports that over 1,100 men, women and children have been killed since protests began in March and some 10,000 people have been detained.
Her statement Thursday described the recent torture and killing of a 13-year-old boy by local security forces as "emblematic of the moral and legal bankruptcy of the apparent policy of crushing dissent by all available means. "
Syrian government spokeswoman Reen Haddad dismissed these reports, telling Sky News that UN agencies have "not been to Syria."
She added that the "only instance where the security forces have fired is where they have been fired at from the beginning."
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Turkish officials said Thursday that about 1,000 Syrians fleeing the violence had crossed into the country. It raised the total number of refugees in Turkey to 1,600.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his country will continue to accept all Syrians who flee, but he also has urged Syria's government to adopt reforms aimed at ending the unrest.
The latest influx of refugees poured into Turkey through its villages of Altinozu and Guvecci on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, the official in Hatay province said. Authorities checked their identities before taking them to a refugee camp built accommodate 5,000 people in the nearby town of Yayladagi.
The official said Turkey was making plans to set up a second refugee camp in Altinozu. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations.
Across the border from Guvecci, dozens of other Syrians could be seen reaching the Turkish frontier, some on motor bikes or in pickup trucks, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene.
The Syrian government challenged this reported mass exodus to Turkey. "Please give us names. Please give us details..." Haddad said.
No international media organizations have been allowed into Syria though Haddad said that Lebanese network LBC and another organization were recently admitted.
In northern Syria, large convoys of Syrian tanks and elite troops were reportedly heading to a restive area near the border, raising the prospect of more bloodshed in a nationwide crackdown on the pro-democracy revolt against the country's president, Bashar Assad.
Turkish ambulances were on standby at a border crossing in Yayladagi to rush any wounded refugees to hospitals. About 30 Syrians who have crossed the border were being treated for injuries suffered during clashes in Syria.
"We hope that Syria softens its stance toward civilians as soon as possible and makes the steps it is taking for reforms more convincing for civilians, for a transformation," Erdogan said Wednesday during a news conference that was nationally televised in Turkey.
The two countries share a 520-mile border.