Mugabe accuses own officials

By Nelson Banya

HARARE (Reuters) - 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.  Continued...