How many more will die before humanity acts?

According to a recent report published by the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, no less than 60,000 people have died in Syrian jails and detention centres since the start of the civil war in the country, more than five years ago.

The human rights organisation compiled the figure from Syrian regime sources, which also said that the highest number of deaths was due to torture, and cruel or inhuman treatment in detention centres run by the Syrian air force intelligence and other state security agencies.

The disclosure of the appalling number of detainees who died in prisons will place the Syrian regime on the infamous list of countries that have killed large numbers of their own people through torture.

A UN report published last February lends support to the charges of cruelty and inhuman treatment in Syrian detention centres.

It came to the conclusion that Damascus has purposely pursued a policy of “extermination” of its political foes.

In early 2014, a Syrian regime defector smuggled 55,000 photographs of people tortured in Syrian jails.

The same source also claimed that thousands of people held by extremists fighting the regime in Syria were killed.

It is the sad story of a people caught in the fight for power of two equally cruel and inhuman forces, but there should be no doubt that those responsible for either the continuation of the Syrian conflict or for the death of people in detention are responsible and must be held accountable for the atrocities that happened in the country over the past five years.

It is truly a disgrace that the international community should have allowed the conflict in Syria — responsible for the commission of so many atrocious crimes — to even start, let alone continue.

History will not be kind to those responsible for the crimes in Syria. But while waiting for history books to be written, many more will lose their lives in this Arab country.

The just-released figure above should prompt the international community to act in defence of the Syrians before more innocent people will be added to the shocking list of people killed.