Zimbabwe workers set to strike

Opposition support is strong in the cities

Zimbabwean workers are expected to stay away on Wednesday, in a general strike called in protest at what unions see as a collapse of law and order in the country.

Correspondents say the strike is expected to be widely observed in cities and towns, where recent election results suggest profound dissatisfaction with President Robert Mugabe's government.

The stoppage has been called by the powerful Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, and has won the backing of white commercial farmers and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is a former unionist

But what was planned as a three-day strike was reduced at the last minute to a one-day action.

A Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions official said the leadership had resolved to limit the stoppage to Wednesday to give the government a chance to respond.

"If the government does not respond, we will go on a much longer strike," said acting ZCTU Secretary-General Nicholas Mudzengerere.

The Zimbabwean Government has criticised the strike as "ill-advised" but says it will not intervene.

Intimidation

The unions called the strike because they say the government is refusing to stop intimidation and attacks on farmers and labourers by the self-styled war veterans who are occupying hundreds of white-owned farms.

Some war veterans are refusing government orders to quit the farms they occupied, and the situation has been described by the Commercial Farmer's Union, which represents white farmers, as close to "total anarchy".

At the weekend the government announced its intention to seize more farms - a total of 3,000 - for the resettlement of black peasant farmers.

There are reports that the government intends to mobilise the army to help with the logistics of resettling the land.

More than 30 people, many of them opposition supporters, have died in violence leading up to last month's election.