Speaking Tuesday, the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, flatly declared that war crimes and atrocities committed by the regime of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad far outweigh” what have been sometimes been treated as parallel actions by opposition elements:

High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said both sides’ abuses should be documented and brought to the International Criminal Court, “but you cannot compare the two. Clearly the actions of the forces of the government far outweigh the violations – killings, cruelty, persons in detention, disappearances, far outweigh” those by the opposition.

Pillay’s testimony had been heavily anticipated – the German Mission to the United Nations tweeted that it hoped she would use her briefing to “clearly denounce Assad’s starvation tactics” – though Reuters contextualized her statements against the backdrop of persistent Russian opposition to any move by the United Nations Security Council to refer Syria to the ICC.

Syria’s ambassador to the U.N., Bashar Ja’afari, responded to Pillay’s comments:

Ja’afari stepped up to the microphone to say Pillay’s comments were “part of an orchestrated pressure campaign” against Syria in the Security Council by France, Britain and the United States. He said she has never visited Syria, that she ignored hundreds of letters he has sent with reports of rebel abuse, and said her comments “confirm her biased reading from the beginning.”

She “has become lunatic in her action, and is behaving irresponsibly,” Ja’afari said.

Al Arabiya reported on Wednesday that forces loyal to Assad had seized the rebel-held town of Rankus – part of a broader campaign to secure the Qalamun region along the Lebanon-Syria border – and conveyed statements from Syrian state media boasting that the Syrian army had now “restored security and stability after eliminating a large number of terrorists.”

[Photo: video news / YouTube ]