Syrian opposition calls for civil disobedience (Reuters)

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Syrians should wage a campaign of civil disobedience to try to force President Bashar al-Assad from power, an exiled dissident said on Saturday at a meeting in Turkey aimed at forging a united opposition.

The opposition, divided between Islamists and liberals, is holding a "National Salvation Congress" to try to unite behind the goal of ending 41 years of Assad family rule, but is struggling to agree on whether to form a shadow government.

"I'm for anything that unifies the Syrian people and helps our people inside, and unifies our ranks in confronting this illegitimate repressive regime that has usurped power and human rights," opposition figure Wael al Hafez told the meeting in Istanbul, echoing comments made by others.

"We want to raise the intensity of the peaceful confrontation by civil disobedience and to choke the regime economically and paralyze the state with the least damage."

The West has criticized Assad's crackdown on four months of protests demanding political freedoms. On Friday, his troops killed at least 32 civilians, including 23 in the capital Damascus.

Secret police killed one protester and wounded five on Saturday when they opened fire at pro-democracy demonstrators in the eastern border town of Albu Kamal near Iraq's Sunni heartland.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, visiting Turkey, said Friday's protests in Syria had been the largest yet, and Assad's repression was "troubling."

"The brutality has to stop," she said in a televised interview with a group of young Turkish people at an Istanbul coffee shop on Saturday.

LINGERING HOPE OF REFORM, RECONCILIATION

Later at a joint news conference with Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Clinton said: "Now Syria's future is up to the Syrian people, but of course the efforts by the opposition to come together to organize and to articulate an agenda are an important part of political reform."

She expressed hope that the people and Assad's government could be reconciled to work together.

"It's what the Syrian people are doing, trying to form an opposition that can provide a pathway hopefully in peaceful cooperation with government to a better future."

Davutoglu repeated warnings to Assad's government to implement reform or face being swept away by democratic forces.

"A government that does not consider the demands of its society won't survive," said Davutoglu, who had earlier urged Assad to undertake "shock therapy" reforms.

"Assad said he was going to have multi -party groups in parliament ... I hope Syria has opposition parties and that Syria has opposition parties that raise their voice," he said.

The opposition said security forces had targeted a wedding hall in Damascus where it had planned to hold a simultaneous conference, connected by video link to the one in Istanbul.

"Several martyrs are fallen and others have been arrested," said Haitham al-Maleh, a former judge who was among political prisoners released by Assad in March when the uprising began.

"The regime cannot deny us our freedoms. This state is for the Syrians, not Assad family's property," Maleh told the meeting in Istanbul of several hundred people.

Most of his audience have lived in exile for years, if not decades, and many have paid a heavy price for their dissent in previous crackdowns by the ruling Baath Party. Unlike other meetings in recent months in Turkey, some members of the opposition inside Syria managed to attend.

Assad's promises of reform have failed to quell the protests. Rights groups say some 1,400 civilians have been killed in the crackdown.

"My feeling is that the situation has reached a point of no return and the regime has also reached a point it cannot retreat after such a level of bloodshed," said Hassan Najar, an exiled Syrian originally from Aleppo, now based in Germany.

"After 41 years, the question is how can you bring together a fragmented opposition? We have had only four months and what has been achieved is a miracle."

The dissidents at the meeting appeared to fall into two camps -- Islamist and secular liberals. Splits seemed to open among them over whether to form a government-in-waiting or wait to see how the uprising unfolds, and they could opt form a united body without presuming a leadership role.

"People are demanding that the opposition speed up unifying its efforts so that people deal with it as a credible alternative," Ali Sadreddin Bayanouni, the former head of Syria's Muslim Brotherhood told Reuters.

(Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; editing by Elizabeth Piper)

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Syrians mourn the dead as opposition seeks change (AP)

BEIRUT – Tens of thousands of Syrians shouting "We want freedom!" carried slain protesters through the streets Saturday as opposition figures meeting in Turkey called for a united front to bring down the 40-year ruling dynasty of the Assad family.

Syrian security forces killed at least 28 people Friday during the largest protests since the uprising began more than four months ago, activists said. Hundreds of thousands of people poured into the streets nationwide, but they were met with gunfire and tear gas.

"The regime has kidnapped the entire state, and we want it back," said Haitham al-Maleh, one of Syria's most prominent dissidents, who led Saturday's opposition conference in Istanbul. The 80-year-old lawyer spent years in Syrian prisons for his political activism.

Syria's crackdown on the protests has led to international condemnation and sanctions. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday that President Bashar Assad had dashed hopes of reform.

"What's happening in Syria is very uncertain and troubling because many of us had hoped that President Assad would make the reforms that were necessary," she said in Istanbul. "The brutality has to stop, there must be a legitimate sincere effort with the opposition to try to make changes."

"Yesterday we witnessed the largest demonstrations to date in Syria, an effort to try to convey directly to the government the pent-up desire of the Syrian people for the kind of reforms that they have been promised," she added.

Activists say the government's crackdown has killed some 1,600 people since March, most of them unarmed protesters. But the regime disputes the toll and blames a foreign conspiracy for the unrest, saying religious extremists — not true reform-seekers — are behind it.

Saturday's conference was an attempt to form a unified movement that can offer a realistic alternative to Assad, whose supporters argue that he is the only force who can guarantee stability in a region bedeviled by civil wars and religious strife.

Although Assad's regime is shaken, he still draws from a significant well of support from the middle classes, business community and religious minorities.

Still, the uprising appears to be gaining momentum.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that tens of thousands from Damascus and the suburbs held funerals for slain protesters Saturday, carrying the bodies overhead on stretchers and shouting "God is Great!" and "We want freedom!"

Like most witnesses in Syria, they spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Witnesses also said security forces opened fire on anti-government protesters in the eastern border town of al-Boukamal near Iraq's border, killing at least one protester and wounding others.

State-run Syria TV contested that, however, and said gunmen killed two police officers in al-Boukamal and armed groups stormed a police headquarters and confiscated weapons.

The government has banned most foreign media and restricted local coverage, making it difficult to independently confirm accounts on the ground.

A small group of activists in Damascus also took part in Saturday's opposition meeting, but they had to join by telephone. The opposition had planned to hold dual meetings in Damascus and Istanbul, but the location in Syria was besieged by security forces on Friday, forcing them to scale back their plans. Activists say 14 protesters were killed Friday in the Damascus neighborhood of Qaboun, where the conference was to be held.

Opposition figure Mashaal Tammo, addressing the conference by phone from Damascus, said Assad had lost his legitimacy to rule and called on him to step down.

"The existence of the regime is no longer justified," he said.

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AP Writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report from Istanbul.

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Zeina Karam can be reached on http://twitter.com/zkaram

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Opposition to meet in Syria after bloody weekend (AP)

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY, Associated Press Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press – 1?hr?16?mins?ago

BEIRUT – Three months into Syria's bloody political showdown, some 200 critics of President Bashar Assad's regime prepared to convene in an unprecedented opposition gathering Monday in Damascus, after another deadly weekend for anti-government protesters.

Activists reported Sunday that Syrian forces opened fire when funerals for slain demonstrators in a Damascus suburb turned into protests on Saturday. Two people were killed, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the London-based director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

He said one person was also killed in Damascus' Barzeh neighborhood during protests, and two were killed in the village of al-Quseir, near the Lebanese border. This followed what activists said were the killings of 20 people during demonstrations Friday across Syria, including two children aged 12 and 13.

Monday's planned meeting among scores of Syria-based opposition figures and intellectuals, the first such inside Syria during the current upheaval, is meant to discuss strategies for a peaceful transition to democracy, said Louay Hussein, a prominent Syrian writer and dissident. They'll meet under the slogan, "All for Syria within a civil and democratic state."

He said Syrian authorities were informed of the meeting and had not blocked it. There would be no government representation, he said.

Another participant, well-known Syrian writer Michel Kilo, who spent years in Syrian prisons for his criticism of the regime, said those meeting Monday have "their own choices and positions" for ways of moving Syria to democracy. He said no one from outside the country had been invited, and participants belong to no political faction.

Whether such a group might produce partners for President Assad's proposed "national dialogue" remains to be seen.

In a nationally televised speech June 20, Assad said he was forming a committee to study constitutional amendments, including one that would open the way to political parties other than the ruling Baath Party. He said a package of reforms was expected by September or no later than the end of the year.

Two days later, his foreign minister, Walid Moallem, called for regime opponents to enter into political talks. "Whoever wants to test our seriousness should come to the national dialogue to be a partner in shaping the future," he said.

Some prominent dissidents rejected such overtures, however, citing what they said was previous Assad talk of reform that produced no political change.

The opposition says some 1,400 people have been killed — most of them unarmed protesters — during the government crackdown on months of street protests.

The regime disputes that figure, however, and says security forces have been the victims of "armed thugs" and foreign conspirators it says are behind the unrest. Syria's military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Riad Haddad, told The Associated Press on Sunday that 300 soldiers and 47 police officers have been killed.

His statement, like the reports by anti-regime activists, could not be independently verified, since Damascus has banned most foreign reporters from Syria and put restrictions on local journalists' reporting.

The unrest has sent thousands of Syrians fleeing into neighboring Turkey and Lebanon. As of Sunday morning, more than 11,450 Syrian refugees were sheltered in Turkey, officials there said. Hundreds, some with gunshot wounds, crossed into Lebanon late last week.

Assad has come under growing international condemnation and sanctions, including from U.S. Sen. John McCain in Cairo on Sunday.

Calling Assad a "butcher," the Arizona Republican said, "It's time to call out Bashar Assad for what he is, and call for him to step down from power, or be removed from power by the people." But McCain emphasized that he was not advocating U.S. military intervention.

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