Police roadblocks as anti-Mugabe strike starts slowly

Several banks and businesses closed today in support of a nationwide strike called to protest at irregularities in Zimbabwe’s widely condemned presidential election.

Some factories and shops in the capital Harare were forced to close after workers failed to show up, but most government offices, post offices and schools remained open.

Union officials expected the three day strike to take greater hold tomorrow.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was summoned to appear in court to face treason charges in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe - a charge he has dismissed as a government ploy to discredit the opposition.

He had been charged and released before the election.

Citing the ‘‘high level of politically motivated’’ violence in the vote that re-elected Mugabe, the Commonwealth decided yesterday to suspended Zimbabwe from the organisation’s meetings for one year.

Tsvangirai welcomed the decision as a strong message to Mugabe that he has isolated himself on the international stage.

The opposition and the country’s largest union federation called the strike in response to the violence surrounding the election - the most contentious in this southern African country’s history.

Police manned roadblocks on the main roads into towns today after declaring the strike illegal under sweeping new security laws passed ahead of the elections.

Though many government offices remained open, several factories in western Harare shut their gates after not enough workers showed up to run their machines, executives said.

Understaffed shops also kept their shutters closed, but security guards let in small groups of customers.

State radio described the strike organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions as a failure and said police were deployed across the country ‘‘to make sure some unruly elements do not prevent people going to work.’’

In Harare, commuter traffic was lighter than usual and activity in its normally bustling townships was down.

Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since leading the nation to independence from Britain in 1980, won another six year term according to election results released last week.

Union leaders said the strike was expected to take wider hold by Thursday. There were no immediate reports of violence.

Zimbabwe’s year long suspension from the Commonwealth councils was announced in London by Australian Prime Minister John Howard, along with presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria.

Howard said they accepted the findings of the Commonwealth observer group, which found the elections seriously flawed.

Mugabe’s information minister, Jonathan Moyo, dismissed the move.

‘‘In the next 12 months we will not spend sleepless nights about the Commonwealth,’’ Moyo said on state radio.

He described the Commonwealth observers’ report as ‘‘a disgraceful document which is heavily opinionated, one-side and unashamedly pro-Britain.’’

It was out of step with ‘‘what more important and relevant Africans have reported,’’ he said.

The government has accused Britain, the former colonial power, of backing the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Mbeki and Obasanjo remained silent during Howard’s announcement, signifying their approval of the decision only with their presence. The South African observer mission had declared the election legitimate.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon later said there had been ‘‘pushing and shoving and cajoling and pleading,’’ during the three hour discussion yesterday, but he did not provide details.

Howard said the three men, whom the Commonwealth had empowered to decide what action to take, had concluded the elections had not allowed for free expression of the electorate’s wishes.

The Commonwealth’s action falls short of a full suspension from the organization, although the difference in effect is marginal. Under suspension from the councils, new technical assistance programs are not permitted except for those aimed at restoring political stability and the rule of law. Under full suspension, all current programs cease, too.

Tsvangirai, who has demanded new elections, welcomed the suspension.

The decision ‘‘should ring a sign of alarm to Mugabe and his colleagues that this continual defiance against national and international opinion is not in the best interests of Zimbabweans,’’ he said.