JOHANNESBURG — Opponents of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe hope to shut down the country today with a general strike that will serve as a measure of the dissatisfaction with his rule.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, which called the strike, said that although government troops might dissuade some workers from taking part, the majority of people were so desperate that they had lost their sense of fear.
“We are no longer afraid to be arrested and detained for a few days, and the arrest will be unlawful anyway,” ZCTU spokesman Mlamleli Sibanda said last night. “The government no longer has the confidence of the people, so they now resort to intimidation, coercion and propaganda.”
The Zimbabwean government owns all daily newspapers plus radio and television, and the media have warned workers against joining the strike, saying that most people are “happy with the achievements” of Mr. Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.
The protest is being supported by opposition parties, which also have called for internationally supervised elections.
A similar action in June 2005 failed when police rounded up the organizers in a series of dawn raids and blocked roads leading into the city.
On Monday, a small group of women demonstrated in the capital, Harare, complaining about a lack of street lighting, trash removal and clean drinking water. All 30 of them were taken into custody, as were more than 60 bystanders who applauded the protest.
Mr. Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980, was returned to power last year in a vote widely criticized as irregular and coercive. Most Western nations, including the United States, refused to recognize the result.
International human rights groups accuse the Mugabe government of gross abuses, including torture and killing of political opponents and embezzlement of state funds.
But Mr. Sibanda said today’s action also has sprung from growing levels of poverty in a country in which less than two out of 10 persons on average are in formal employment.
Last year, troops loyal to Mr. Mugabe bulldozed thousands of shacks and informal trading sites in cities and towns across the country. The United Nations estimated that more than 700,000 people were left homeless, and a report this month by the International Organization for Migration says police have arrested or beaten those who tried to return.
Zimbabwe has the world’s highest inflation rate, officially more than 1000 percent.
Last month, the Reserve Bank issued fresh bank notes, lopping three zeroes off the currency, so that a loaf of bread that had cost 200,000 Zimbabwean dollars sold for 200 in the new money. But, within two weeks, the cost of some foods doubled.
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