President Mugabe today ordered police to be deployed “fully armed” to deal forcefully with unrest in Harare and threatened to expel Western diplomats who showed support for the opposition MDC.

Mr Mugabe, whose comments were reported on state radio, dramatically heightened tension at the end of a week in which police dealt brutally with protests against his regime, inflicting serious injuries on Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader.

It was an open challenge to opposition politicians who earlier in the day agreed set aside 18 months of infighting that left their parties bitterly divided to challenge Mr Mugabe.

Political and civil leaders, some of whom bore the scars of savage beatings inflicted by the President’s security forces, stood together on a podium to mark what they said was “the final stage of the final push” to force him out of office.

“Sunday was the demonstration of commitment to working together; there is no better place to demonstrate unity than in the battlefield,” said Arthur Mutambara, leader of a breakaway faction of the MDC who yesterday pledged to work with Mr Tsvangirai.

There were loud cheers when Mr Mutambara declared: “We have our differences but we will manage them. Arthur Mutambara will not stand in an election against Morgan Tsvangirai; Morgan Tsvangirai will not stand against Arthur Mutambara.

“I hope, Robert Mugabe, you sick old man, you are listening,” he said.

Mr Tsvangirai, who suffered a broken skull when security forces broke up Sunday’s opposition rally, was unable to attend today’s act of reconciliation because of his injuries, although he was later released from hospital in a wheelchair.

However, Tendai Biti, his secretary-general, sitting next to Mr Mutambara, endorsed the statement. The MDC break-up in 2005 was “tragic,” he said. “We have been seeing\ beginning to emerge the unity of opposition on the ground.

“This is the endgame,” he said. “We are in the final stages of the final push. We are going to do it by democratic means, by being arrested, beaten, but we are going to do it.”

“We are continuing with defiance, with our rallies, in spite of what Robert Mugabe says,” said Mr Mutambara. “We are talking about total rebellion, war.”

Asked whether this meant setting aside the MDC’s long commitment to non-violence, he said: “You can do your own interpretation. Mugabe is fighting against his own people. That is war against the people. Already there is violence.”

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