Date : 14/07/2005
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
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