Hardball Politics In Uneasy Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's main opposition leader said Monday police had charged him with treason but he still expected to contest next month's presidential elections.

"I have been charged with high treason," Morgan Tsvangirai, President Robert Mugabe's leading adversary in the March 9-10 polls, told reporters after he was questioned by police.

"The charge was that I had committed treason and that they would like to find out from me what I had to say. Of course I denied that completely," he said.

If found guilty he could be sentenced to death or life imprisonment. Tsvangirai said he believed police would not proceed with any prosecution before the elections.

The charge came over allegations he plotted to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, his lawyer said.

Tsvangirai, who heads the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, was questioned for two hours Monday, said his lawyer, Innocent Chajonda. He was released and told he would be summoned at a later date.

It was not immediately clear how this would affect Tsvangirai's ability to campaign in the presidential elections of March 9-10. Mugabe is fighting for his political survival against Tsvangirai after nearly 22 years of autocratic rule.

Mugabe said last week that he would not have Tsvangirai arrested before the elections.

The government claims Tsvangirai met with members a Canada-based political consulting firm last year to arrange for the "elimination" of Mugabe.

Ten days ago, the firm released a secretly recorded video tape of a Dec. 4 meeting in Montreal which they said incriminated Tsvangirai.

Zimbabwe's state media has given wide coverage to the allegations by Ari Ben-Menashe, who heads the Canadian consulting firm Dickens and Madson.

Ben-Menashe left Harare on Sunday after meeting with police and members of the Central Intelligence Organization.

On Friday, the state-run Herald newspaper, often used as a platform for publicizing official comment, reported that Tsvangirai claimed he would receive the support of the United States and other governments to head a transitional government following an assassination of Mugabe.

Mugabe has told supporters at campaign rallies he knew of the alleged plot last year but did nothing to have Tsvangirai arrested "for fear of plunging the country into chaos" ahead of the vote.

Denying the assassination claims, Tsvangirai said he met four times with the Canadian consulting firm about possible publicity it could offer his party abroad. He said his recorded remarks were taken out of context.

A video timing clock was not erased from a grainy copy of the recording aired by Zimbabwe state television and showed that the original secret tape had been heavily edited and even "rearranged," said the Mass Media Project of Zimbabwe, an independent media monitoring group.

The Mass Media Project also said that state television devoted 35 minutes of its nightly news over the first four nights to the alleged conspiracy. The opposition's fficial denial received 15 seconds of air time on the same news program in the same period.

Despite reports of controversial dealings by Ben-Menashe and his partner, who is wanted in the United States on allegations of fraud, the state media on Sunday described Ben-Menashe as "a man of indisputable credibility."

Tsvangirai's motorcade has been attacked at least three times in the last two years since political violence began in the country in the run up to the June 2000 parliamentary elections.

In the latest round of violence, police fired tear gas and shots at opposition vehicles in southern Zimbabwe on Friday. Tsvangirai, who travels in an armor-protected vehicle, was not hurt.

A van carrying election observers was stoned Sunday by activists loyal to Mugabe who apparently mistook them for opposition supporters, observer officials said.

Among the three injured observers was a retired police chief from Botswana. He was in a van carrying members of a team representing the Southern African Development Community.

According to witnesses, the activists throwing stones at the van wore t-shirts emblazoned with Mugabe's picture.

Sunday's incident marked the second time international observers had been attacked by ruling party activists.