KUN0067 4 GEN 0356 KUWAIT /KUNA-QTY3 MIL-SYRIA-ACTIVIST-CAT Syrian authorities ban human rights activist from leaving country DAMASCUS, July 14 (KUNA) -- Syrian human rights activist and lawyer Anwar Al-Bunni said that Syrian authorities prevented him on Thursday from leaving to Geneva to attend meetings of the Committee Against Torture (CAT). In a statement he distributed to journalists today, Al-Bunni said that the Syrian authorities have violated Syrian law and human rights by taking such an unwarranted action. He added that he sent the speech he was due to deliver at CAT's meeting to the committee in Geneva to be read on his behalf. The speech, he noted, would demonstrate human rights volitions and torture practices. It also would call on the United Nations and its Higher Commission for Human Rights (HCHR) to play an active role to cease these breaches. In a related Syrian security development, the media officer of Arab Human Rights Organization Ammar Al-Qirabi said on Thursday that 13 citizens from the Syrian town of Al-Qadmous' headed to Damascus to meet Syrian President Bashar AL-Asad The citizens' visit to Al-Asad has come in an attempt to clarify the severity of the violent events that took place yesterday in the town, located in Tartos Province, which resulted in killing 75-year-old Fayez Najem and injuring 13 othesrs, Al-Qarbi added, pointing out that the incident might lead to an explosive security situation. In a press statement, he said that an old personal dispute between a family from Qadmous and another family from a near by town was recently fanned with sectarian schism, threatening national unity. He added that insurgents, believed to be close to the Syrian authority, opened fire at streets of villages near Al-Qadmous, burned 24 stores and vandalized several houses. Since the Syrian authorities learned about the incident, he said, security forces have been stationed at the area's intersections and are patrolling its streets. Syrian daily newspaper, Al-Thawara, said today 15 people were injured and security forces arrested citizens from both sides to interrogate them. (end) tk.rb KUNA 141755 Jul 05NNNN