Mugabe says U.S. plotted to kill him

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Saturday accused his vice president of plotting with the United States Embassy to remove him.

In a massive tent in an open field in the capital, Harare, Mugabe told about 12,000 members of the ruling Zanu-PF party that his spies had followed Vice President Joice Mujuru to the U.S. Embassy, where he said she held secret meetings to plan his assassination.

The party congress re-elected the 90-year-old Mugabe to another five-year term as party president and authorized him to personally choose his vice president and other top party posts.

“I am open to competition, but not when it involves taking me out the Kabila way,” said Mugabe, referring to the former leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Laurent Kabila, who was assassinated by one of his bodyguards in 2001.

Mujuru, once a freedom fighter in Mugabe’s guerrilla army, is now a political outcast accused of conspiring with witches and foreign agents to remove the president.

Mujuru was removed as the party’s vice president during the congress.

Mugabe said he plans to announce Mujuru’s successor later this week and assured a cheering crowd that the vice president and her allies, including spokesman Rugare Gumbo, who was also suspended, will not be considered.

Mujuru remains vice president of Zimbabwe, as Mugabe will need parliament’s approval to remove her from government. She did not attend the party meeting.