Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Thursday dismissed international condemnation of a violent government crackdown that sent the main opposition leader and dozens of his supporters to hospital, telling Western countries to "go hang."

Robert Mugabe has led Zimbabwe since its independence from Britain in 1980.
(Associated Press)

"It's the West as usual," several media agencies quoted Mugabe as saying Thursday during a meeting with Tanzanian leader Jakaya Kikwete.

"When they criticize the government when it tries to prevent violence and punish perpetrators of that violence, we take the position that they can go hang."

Movement for Democratic Change Leader Morgan Tsvangirai remains in a hospital in Harare under observation after being treated for internal bleeding and a suspected fractured skull. Doctors say he is now out of danger.

Tsvangirai, 54, and dozens of opposition supporters were arrested on the weekend following an anti-government rally outside the capital. One man was shot and killed and another 34 activists required hospital treatment.

Riot police took the demonstrators to a police station, where Tsvangirai said he was beaten on the head, back and knees, and that his arm was broken.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, outside the court in Harare on Tuesday, was taken to hospital following his court appearance, two days after his arrest.
(Associated Press)

The 83-year-old Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence from Britain in 1980, instead blamed the MDC and its supporters for inciting the violence, which he said led to the arrests.

"Here are groups of persons who went out of their way to effect a campaign of violence and we hear no criticism at all of those actions of violence, none at all," he said.

Mugabe's opponents blame him for acute food shortages, inflation of some 1,600 per cent — the highest in the world — as well as flagrant corruption and a sustained campaign of repression of political dissent.

According to Amnesty International, Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, along with the police, the army and a youth militia, have been implicated in numerous human rights violations, including torture, assault and arbitrary detention.