UN rights head: shocking brutality in Syria, Libya

(May 30, 2011) The United Nations top human rights official says the brutality and magnitude of repression in Syria and Libya against anti-government groups is ``shocking.'' Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, says the crackdown in those countries is marked by an ``outright disregard for basic human rights.'' Rights groups say hundreds of people have been killed in Syria since the start of protests in mid-March. Pillay urged the Syrian government on Monday to allow a U.N. fact-finding mission to visit the country. The team has been awaiting Syria's reply since requesting a visit on May 6. Pillay also condemned the repression of protests in Bahrain and Yemen in her speech at the opening of a three-week meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.