{"id":304,"date":"2011-07-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/?p=304","title":{"rendered":"Veteran activist’s demands reflect new Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nVeteran activist’s demands reflect new Syria<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n26 July 2011\n<\/p>\n

\nTwo months ago, when prominent Syrian human rights lawyer
\nAnwar al-Bunni finally stepped onto the streets of Damascus after completing a
\nfive year jail sentence, he walked out into a changed world.\n<\/p>\n

\nOn a personal level, the nightmare of his prison existence-
\na prisoner of conscience surrounded by convicted criminals and living in fear
\nof attack by both inmates and guards – was finally over. But, more broadly, the
\npopular protests that had erupted two months earlier meant that Syria itself
\nhad been transformed. He and other human rights defenders no longer felt alone.\n<\/p>\n

\n“In the past, only a few of us dared to call for freedom and
\nhuman rights.”  <\/span>he told Amnesty
\nInternational. “We used to feel isolated, as the majority of people avoided us
\nout of fear of retribution from the authorities. After my release, I have realised
\nthat my demands became the demands of all the Syrian people.”\n<\/p>\n

\nWhile in jail, he also received international recognition,
\nin the form of a Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders. But such
\nrecognition, both at home and abroad, came at a steep personal price. Anwar
\nal-Bunni has been subjected to various forms of harassment, including facing
\ndisciplinary measures from the Damascus Bar Association, and being banned from
\ntravelling abroad In 2006 he was arrested for being among some 300 Syrian and
\nLebanese nationals who signed a petition calling for the normalisation of
\nrelations between Syria and Lebanon. A year later he was jailed for five years
\non a charge of “spreading false information harmful to the state” after
\nspeaking out about the case of a prisoner who died in detention as a result of
\ntorture or other ill-treatment.\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>Instead of being
\nincarcerated with like –minded prisoners of conscience, Anwar al-Bunni served
\nhis entire sentence in the so called “Killer’s Wing” at Adra Prison. There he
\nshared an overcrowded cell with convicted criminal prisoners, including some
\nwho were under sentence of death. The threat of violence too was always
\npresent.\n<\/p>\n

\n“I spent most of my five–year sentence in a state of
\nconstant worry of possible attacks by other prisoners especially because I had
\nbeen assaulted before by other inmates under pressure from the
\nadministration.”  <\/span>The guards also beat
\nand degraded him, at one point shaving his head and making him crawl on all
\nfours.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut Anwar al-Bunni was undeterred. Since his release, he has
\nreturned to his profession in the law, representing detained protestors in
\ncourts, writing papers on how Syria’s political system could be reformed and
\ninvestigating human rights violations against some of the thousands of Syrians
\narrested after recent demonstrations. “Many are held in inhuman conditions
\nwhere torture is quite widespread”. He recently spoke to a recently- released
\nprisoner who was being incarcerated in a four-metre-square cell with around 200
\nothers.\n<\/p>\n

\nAs for what the Syrian government has announced as reforms
\nin response to the mass protests, including the lifting of the 48 year old
\nstate of emergency, Anwar al-Bunni says these have failed to transform the
\nrealities on the ground. On the contrary, he says, the authorities have
\nintroduced new measures to legalise mass arrests and extend incommunicado
\ndetention from a lawful maximum of four days to one of 60 days.  <\/span>“Legally”, he says “the situation now is
\nworse than before.”  <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nOn a personal level, he and his wife are among many Syrians
\nwho remain banned from travelling abroad, despite a recent official
\nannouncement that such bans have been lifted. And for the next seven years he
\nremains barred from voting or putting himself forward for election, working in
\nthe public sector or publishing or editing any publication.\n<\/p>\n

\nBut for Anwar al-Bunni, the response he has received from
\nhis fellow Syrians makes it all worthwhile. “Unlike before, people now openly
\nexpress their solidarity with me and their respect for all that I have done.”
\nhe said.  <\/span>“To feel that you have actually
\ngiven something to others and that they recognise and value what you have done
\nis a great feeling!”\n<\/p>\n

\nHe also expressed thanks for Amnesty International’s support
\nduring the dark days of his imprisonment. He did not receive letters sent to
\nhim by the organization but was told of them by his wife: “I thank you very
\nmuch and I consider myself as if I received the letters personally.”<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nhttp:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/news-and-updates\/veteran-activists-demands-reflect-new-syria-2011-07-26<\/a>
\n<\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n \n<\/p>\n

\n <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\nVeteran activist’s demands reflect new Syria<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nTwo months ago, when prominent Syrian human rights lawyer
\nAnwar al-Bunni finally stepped onto the streets of Damascus after completing a
\nfive year jail sentence, he walked out into a changed world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}