KEY POINTS:
HARARE - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe accused officials in his own party of joining a Western-backed plot on Friday as the main opposition chief left hospital after treatment for what he said was an orgy of police beatings.
Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had been treated for a head wound and other injuries following his arrest on Sunday at an anti-Mugabe protest. He said he would fight on to end Mugabe's long rule.
"Freedom is not cheap," the 55-year-old Tsvangirai, who has challenged Mugabe in several elections, told Reuters at his home in the capital Harare shortly after he was discharged.
Images of a badly bruised and limping Tsvangirai on his way to the hospital earlier this week fuelled international outrage and threats by the United States and other nations to tighten sanctions against Mugabe and other senior Zimbabwean officials.
Mugabe, 83, warned against any "monkey games" by those he called the stooges of his Western critics, whom he accused of funding Tsvangirai's MDC to replace him through "violent terrorist acts".
He said imperialists were taking advantage of the ruling ZANU-PF party succession to re-assert themselves.
"There has been an insidious dimension where ambitious leaders have been cutting deals with the British and Americans," Mugabe told a meeting of ZANU-PF's youth league in Harare.
"The whole succession debate has given imperialism hope for re-entry. Since when have the British, the Americans been friends of ZANU-PF? Have we forgotten that imperialism can never mean well for our people?" said Mugabe.
Mugabe's current six-year term ends in 2008 but the ruling party last December circulated a motion to hold presidential elections in 2010 when the parliamentary vote is due.
This was viewed as a move to extend Mugabe's rule but has drawn resistance from some senior members of ZANU-PF.
Mugabe appears to have backed down from the plan but has stoked further tension by suggesting last week that he would run for President next year if his party picked him as candidate.
There are two competing factions bidding to succeed Mugabe, with one pushing for Vice President Joice Mujuru. Emmerson Mnangagwa, a heavyweight minister in Mugabe's government is said to be another strong contender for the post.
Critics charge that Mugabe, Zimbabwe's ruler since independence from Britain in 1980, has ruined the former breadbasket of the region through controversial policies such as the seizure of white-owned land to resettle blacks.
Tsvangirai said on Friday he was feeling better but had been told to relax by doctors. Supporters say he suffered a fractured skull but doctors have not confirmed this.
In an article for Britain's Independent newspaper on Friday, he said democratic change was in sight in Zimbabwe and his spirit would not be broken by police violence.
"They brutalised my flesh. But they will never break my spirit. I will soldier on until Zimbabwe is free," he wrote, saying he suffered an "orgy of heavy beatings" in custody.
Mugabe, whose government says Tsvangirai and his group had resisted arrest and waged a violent, militia-style campaign to topple him from power, renewed warnings to the MDC.
"If they repeat it they will get arrested and get bashed by the police," he said. "We now must have our police well armed."
The veteran leader said Western governments, through their embassies in Harare were funding the MDC. He said the ambassadors would be summoned by his foreign ministers but warned them they risked being kicked out if they did not behave.
Mugabe on Thursday told Western critics to "go hang" and on Friday said their plans to propel the MDC to power would fail.
"They are wrong and stand for great shock if they continue to stretch our patience. As for the stooges: let them get this as friendly advice: no monkey games here," he said.
Tsvangirai and others arrested in the recent crackdown face charges of public violence and convening an illegal rally, defence lawyers say. The charges usually lead to fines not jail.
A court hearing on Tuesday was cancelled after a prosecutor ordered Tsvangirai and others be treated in hospital.
- REUTERS
