Activists launch civil disobedience campaign in Syria

Nabil El Arabi Syrian activists on Thursday launched a campaign of civil disobedience to pile pressure on President Bashar Al-Assad, after he drew a stinging rebuke from the US for denying he ordered a deadly crackdown.
Local human rights groups said more than 100 people have been killed in Syria since the weekend, and the UN estimates at least 4,000 have died since March when anti-regime protests erupted.
In a rare interview with US network ABC's veteran journalist Barbara Walters, Assad said he will not allow Arab League observers unfettered access to monitor the crackdown. "They cannot just come and do whatever they want...(monitoring visits) can only take place in cooperation with the Syrian government."
 He also denied that the unrest in Syria amounted to a civil war.
"We have trouble we have turbulence but not, not to the extent that you have a divided army. If you have divided army you are going to have real war. You don't have war, you have– instability is different from war."
In the Walters interview, Assad also questioned the UN toll and denied ordering the killing of protesters, saying only a "crazy person" would do so.
Assad's outright denial of the crackdown and human rights violations in his country has enraged his critics. Syria's largest opposition group accused Assad of being "delusional" after he insisted that documented cases of crimes against humanity were carried out by individuals outside his control. The Syrian National Council (SNC), said: "Assad has proved he is delusional and mixed up. By law, Assad is the commander in chief of the army and responsible for every bullet fired at a civilian in Syria. He will be tried and brought to justice, sooner or later." The White House dismissed the president's comments as "just not credible".
Washington said Assad's remarks showed he was disconnected from reality or himself "crazy," as he comes under mounting global pressure, with Arab nations and Turkey joining the West in pursuing sanctions against his regime.
 In a bid to further peace efforts, Arab League head Nabil Al-Arabi has travelled to Baghdad for talks with senior Iraqi officials on the Syria crisis. Iraq abstained on a League vote to impose sanctions against Syria.
Arabi will meet with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, to discuss the latest developments in the region particularly in Syria, in addition to Baghdad's preparations to host an AL summit in March next year.
Iraqi state news channel Iraqia said that Arabi will also meet with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and parliament speaker Osama Al-Nujaifi.
Despite the rhetoric, the Local Coordination Committees (LCC) activist network reported on Thursday that Assad's forces used bombs and "heavy and indiscriminate gunfire" in Damascus and northwestern Idlib province.
The LCC, which organises anti-regime protests on the ground in Syria, appealed for citizens to mobilise for a "dignity strike ... which will lead to the sudden death of this tyrant regime."
The campaign would "snowball... and grow each day of the revolution to reach every home and anyone who wants to live delighted and dignified in his/her country," said an LCC statement received in Nicosia.
It urged citizens to begin the action on Sunday - the first day of the working week in Syria - starting with sit-ins at work, and the closure of shops and universities, before the shutdown of transportation networks and a general public sector strike.
"The Syrian revolution is... a renaissance against slavery; a scream at the face of humiliation started from the first day as demonstrators cried 'Syrians are not to be humiliated.'
"The echo of this scream will not vanish till it reaches all ears," said the English-language statement, adding the strike was "the first step in an overall civil disobedience" campaign which will overthrow the regime.
Reports that there was no let-up in the crackdown also came from another activist group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
It said that clashes between Syria's regular army and mutinous soldiers shook the town of Saraqeb in Idlib province, near the border with Turkey, on Wednesday.
Also in Idlib, "military forces raided houses and arrested three militants," in the vicinity of Saraqeb, while "some 50 armoured vehicles, including tanks and troop carriers, came under attack in the village of Al-Rami," it added.
The Observatory also said a 16-year-old girl was shot dead and 20 people were wounded near Saraqeb, and that two women died for lack of medication in the Al-Hula region of central Homs province.
Bashar Al-Assad's family has ruled Syria with an iron fist for four decades. His brother, Lieutenant Colonel Maher Al-Assad, heads the army's Fourth Division, which oversees the capital as well as the elite Republican Guard.
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner dared Assad to back up his assertions by letting in international observers and media, saying there was a "clear campaign against peaceful protesters."
"It either says that he's completely lost any power that he had within Syria, that he's simply a tool or that he's completely disconnected with reality," Toner told reporters Wednesday.
"It's either disconnection, disregard or, as he said, crazy. I don't know," Toner said.