By Jason Webb
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain and Malaysia tightened security onThursday to stop strikes against soaring global fuel pricesturning violent, as well as snarling road networks and slowingdeliveries of food and raw materials.
Spain promised "zero tolerance" for violence by strikingtruckers after a string of incidents including an arson attackon a strike-breaking truck that left the driver with burns to25 percent of his body.
"The government is going to have zero tolerance for any actof intimidation or violence," Socialist Prime Minister JoseLuis Rodriguez Zapatero said.
The government said it had arrested 71 picketers foroffences including intimidating non-striking drivers since thestoppage by 75,000 truckers began on Sunday night to call forgovernment help to cope with high fuel prices.
Malaysia boosted security in the capital to halt a rallythe opposition hopes will bring more than 20,000 people ontothe streets after Friday's Muslim prayers as anger mounts overthe price rises and the government's attempts to soften theimpact.
Kuala Lumpur Police Chief, Muhammad Sabtu Osman, said 1,500to 2,000 security personnel have been put on alert to stop theplanned march from a mosque in a poor, mainly ethnic Malay partof the city to the iconic twin towers in the city centre.
Oil prices have risen by roughly 40 percent since the startof the year to all-time high above $139 last week, hittingeconomies and sectors already battling the global credit crunchand the prices of other commodities rising.
Strikes have spread around the globe, forcing governmentsto offer concessions to truckers and other industriesstruggling with rising prices at the pumps.
India's truckers will begin an indefinite strike nextmonth, a union leader said, taking 4 million vehicles off theroads.
"From July 2, there will be no vehicle on the road. We havetaken that decision," said Charan Singh Lohara, president ofthe All India Motor Transport Congress.
A similar week-long strike in August 2004 pulled monthlydiesel sales down 9.3 percent from a year earlier, while annualgrowth in industrial output slowed to 7.9 percent from 8.4percent in the previous month as the strike disruptedshipments.
DUTCH GO-SLOW
In Thailand, truckers said they were ready to block roadsinto the capital if the government did not meet demandsincluding discounting diesel and making cheap loans availableto convert engines to compressed natural gas.
In the Netherlands, protesters slowed their trucks to 50kph (30 mph) for about half an hour on Thursday to try to forcethe government to scrap a diesel tax hike due next month.
"This is the limit, our tanks are empty," said a boardplaced beside the highway by truckers association TLN callingfor 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 transportgroup EVO next week to talk about the price of diesel, TLNsaid. Last week, the government said it would go ahead with theincrease.
In Britain, about 500 tanker drivers who supply Shellpetrol stations are threatening to strike for days from Friday.
Spain's government tempted most truckers back to work withpromises of tax breaks on Wednesday but has refused to accedeto demands for minimum haulage charges. Tax breaks were alsooffered by Portugal, which also negotiated an end to itsstrike.
Spain said deliveries of food and other goods werereturning to normal on Thursday after the agreement althoughfood distribution centres reported shortages and car factoriesremained at a standstill.
However the scene at Madrid's main food market,Mercamadrid, which supplies the capital's shops andsupermarkets, was far from normal as the number of deliverieswas reduced to a trickle because non-striking truckers werebeing stopped by picketers.
Riot police in body armour have broken up picket lines andthe government has promised a police escort for working trucks.
With fishermen already on strike and Madrid taxi driversdue to stop working for 24 hours from Friday, Spain is beinghit hard by the protests. Zapatero has been criticised by mediaand the opposition for failing to do more to confront thestrike.
"Whose fault is this? The state, the politicians. Theypromise so much," a 62-year-old woman shopping at MostensesMarket in central Madrid said.
(Additional reporting by Reuters reporters in Madrid,Lisbon, New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Amsterdam and London; Writingby Alison Williams; Editing by Charles Dick)
