Grève et affrontements en Syrie – 12 décembre 2011

washingtonpost.com

By Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Tuesday, December 13,

BEIRUT — Syrians closed their businesses and kept children home from school Monday in a general strike, a powerful show of civil disobedience to pressure President Bashar al-Assad to end his nearly nine-month-old crackdown on a popular uprising.

The open-ended strike is designed to erode Assad’s main base of support — the merchant classes that have benefited in recent years as the president opened up the economy.

If the economy continues to collapse, Assad could find himself with few allies inside the country, where calls are growing for him to step down. The authoritarian president is also struggling with international isolation and sanctions.

It is difficult to gauge the strength of the strike because the regime has banned most foreign journalists and prevented local reporters from moving freely. But there were signs that it was being widely observed, in particular in centers of anti-government rallies: the southern province of Daraa, the suburbs of the capital, Damascus, the northwestern region of Idlib and the restive city of Homs. Read more…