Security tightened as fuel protests turn violent

Spain and Malaysia tightened security on Thursday to stop strikes against soaring global fuel prices turning violent, as well as snarling road networks and slowing deliveries of food and raw materials.

Spain promised "zero tolerance" for violence by striking truckers after a string of incidents including an arson attack on a strike-breaking truck that left the driver with burns to 25 percent of his body.

"The government is going to have zero tolerance for any act of intimidation or violence," Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said.

The government said it had arrested 71 picketers for offences including intimidating non-striking drivers since the stoppage by 75,000 truckers began on Sunday night to call for government help to cope with high fuel prices.

Malaysia boosted security in the capital to halt a rally the opposition hopes will bring more than 20,000 people onto the streets after Friday's Muslim prayers as anger mounts over the price rises and the government's attempts to soften the impact.

Kuala Lumpur Police Chief, Muhammad Sabtu Osman, said 1,500 to 2,000 security personnel have been put on alert to stop the planned march from a mosque in a poor, mainly ethnic Malay part of the city to the iconic twin towers in the city centre.

Oil prices have risen by roughly 40 percent since the start of the year to all-time high above $139 last week, hitting economies and sectors already battling the global credit crunch and the prices of other commodities rising.

Strikes have spread around the globe, forcing governments to offer concessions to truckers and other industries struggling with rising prices at the pumps.

India's truckers will begin an indefinite strike next month, a union leader said, taking 4 million vehicles off the roads.

"From July 2, there will be no vehicle on the road. We have taken that decision," said Charan Singh Lohara, president of the All India Motor Transport Congress.

A similar week-long strike in August 2004 pulled monthly diesel sales down 9.3 percent from a year earlier, while annual growth in industrial output slowed to 7.9 percent from 8.4 percent in the previous month as the strike disrupted shipments.

DUTCH GO-SLOW

In Thailand, truckers said they were ready to block roads into the capital if the government did not meet demands including discounting diesel and making cheap loans available to convert engines to compressed natural gas.

In the Netherlands, protesters slowed their trucks to 50 kph (30 mph) for about half an hour on Thursday to try to force the government to scrap a diesel tax hike due next month.

"This is the limit, our tanks are empty," said a board placed beside the highway by truckers association TLN calling for drivers to support the go-slow.

Some Dutch drivers also blocked a stretch of highway, halting their trucks, Dutch broadcaster NOS said.

The Dutch government will meet TLN and Dutch transport group EVO next week to talk about the price of diesel, TLN said. Last week, the government said it would go ahead with the increase.

In Britain, about 500 tanker drivers who supply Shell petrol stations are threatening to strike for days from Friday.

Spain's government tempted most truckers back to work with promises of tax breaks on Wednesday but has refused to accede to demands for minimum haulage charges. Tax breaks were also offered by Portugal, which also negotiated an end to its strike.

Spain said deliveries of food and other goods were returning to normal on Thursday after the agreement although food distribution centres reported shortages and car factories remained at a standstill.

However the scene at Madrid's main food market, Mercamadrid, which supplies the capital's shops and supermarkets, was far from normal as the number of deliveries was reduced to a trickle because non-striking truckers were being stopped by picketers.

Riot police in body armour have broken up picket lines and the government has promised a police escort for working trucks.

With fishermen already on strike and Madrid taxi drivers due to stop working for 24 hours from Friday, Spain is being hit hard by the protests. Zapatero has been criticised by media and the opposition for failing to do more to confront the strike.

"Whose fault is this? The state, the politicians. They promise so much," a 62-year-old woman shopping at Mostenses Market in central Madrid said.