President Robert Mugabe on Thursday defended the eviction of tens of thousands of traders and shack dwellers from city streets as a two-day strike against the campaign got off to a slow start. Many roads were quieter than usual in the capital, Harare, and other major centers. But banks, schools, shops and most other businesses were open as Zimbabweans apparently heeded police warnings not to participate in the protest. In an address to Parliament, Mugabe called the three-week blitz "a vigorous cleanup campaign to restore sanity" in urban areas. "The current chaotic state of affairs where (small and medium enterprises) operated ... in undesignated and crime-ridden areas could not be countenanced for much longer," Mugabe said at the opening of Parliament.