Damascus closes EU-funded human rights centre

The Syrian government shut down a European Union-funded human rights centre in Damascus, its director told AFP Saturday.

The centre was shut down Wednesday a week after it was opened, its founder human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni told AFP.

The shutdown came after an inauguration ceremony attended on February 21 by the EU's ambassador to Damascus Frank Hesske.

Ahead of it opening, the centre was billed as a place to train lawyers, journalists and others in human rights.

Belgian non-governmental organisation the Institute for International Assistance and Solidarity was picked to implement the two-year project, while the EU is donating 93,000 Euros (111,000 dollars) to the centre.

The closure comes amid spiraling tensions between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the West over last year's assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri and allegations Damascus sponsors terrorism.

An ongoing UN enquiry into the 2005 killing of Hariri has implicated senior Syrian and Lebanese officials.

Rights organisation Amnesty International said in its 2005 report that hundreds of people had been arrested in Syria for political reasons, many held incommunicado and allegedly tortured or ill-treated.

Despite reports of continued harassment, the London-based group said that human rights defenders could work more openly than in previous years".