GENEVA, Dec 1 (Reuters) - U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay believes Syria is on the cusp of civil war, her spokesman said on Thursday, clarifying her earlier remarks.
"It is definitely heading that way, with more and more reports of armed resistance to the government forces. It is on the cusp, but in these circumstances it is hard to say definitively at what point it becomes civil war," Pillay's spokesman Rupert Colville told Reuters.
The clarification came after Pillay told a news conference that the death toll in Syria was more than 4,000.
"I have said that as soon as there were more and more defectors threatening to take up arms - I said this in August before the Security Council - there was going to be a civil war. At the moment that's how I am characterising this," she said.
There are increasing numbers of reports of rebel soldiers and others taking up arms against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
The Arab League put Syrian VIPs on a travel ban list on Thursday and European Union foreign ministers readied a raft of economic sanctions against Assad to press him into stopping an eight-month military crackdown on popular protests. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Andrew Roche)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
