Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe congratulated Zimbabweans on Friday for regaining their land from white farmers, in a defiant speech to mark 23 years of independence.

"Dear Zimbabweans, it gives me immense pleasure to be able to tell you that the land that for over a century we yearned to recover has come back to us. It is your land, my land," Mugabe told crowds at Harare's National Sports Stadium.

People also gathered on Friday morning in Zimbabwe's nine provinces for celebrations to mark the anniversary of independence from white Rhodesian rule.

But current economic problems and heightened political tensions have cast a shadow over the holiday for many.

'The nation has been robbed of hope and the country has been reduced to wasteland'

This week, as petrol prices nearly trebled and inflation hit 228 percent, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) confirmed it would stage mass action to protest alleged misgovernance.

In an apparent reference to those threats Mugabe warned: "Those who reject democracy and choose the road of violence to achieve their political goals are the enemy of Zimbabwe, and will not be allowed to succeed."

Mugabe, who fought in the 1970s war against the white regime of Prime Minister Ian Smith, said the country remained conscious of the "painful struggle and huge sacrifices made by our people" to achieve independence.

And he hit out at Western nations who have criticised the southern African country for its land reform programme, as well as for alleged human rights abuses.

Three years ago Zimbabwe launched a controversial land reform programme, which has seen 300 000 black families settled on 11-million hectares of former white-owned land, according to official figures.

'ZANU-PF has brought torture and hunger to Zimbabwe'

"The so-called unipolar world would like us to accept deprivation," he told cheering crowds in a speech made after lighting the Independence Flame, as he does each year.

But he acknowledged that "we need to make the land productive". Nearly eight million Zimbabweans have faced food shortages, a crisis Mugabe's government blames on drought but critics pin partly on land reform.

Friday's celebrations featured military displays, a fly-past by the air force and performances by youth drama groups. New police vehicles were also in evidence. State radio said they were to "quell any violence".

"Because we have affirmed our sovereignty, we are regarded as a great threat to powerful nations," Mugabe said.

The government has been angered by Zimbabwe's continued suspension from the Commonwealth, announced by Secretary General Don McKinnon last month.

The MDC, meanwhile, has said there is nothing to celebrate this Independence Day. It has complained that scores of its supporters have been arrested or assaulted since a widely supported stayaway in March.

In an Easter and Independence Day message, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is facing treason charges over an alleged plot to kill Mugabe, said: "The nation has been robbed of hope and the country has been reduced to wasteland."

"The democratic space has been effectively abolished and peaceful protest is answered with bullets, teargas and bayonets."

In a graphic advertisement published in the private Daily News newspaper, the MDC showed a photograph of the badly scarred torso of an MDC supporter.

The party said he had been brutally tortured by a group of 20 armed ZANU-PF supporters.

"ZANU-PF has brought torture and hunger to Zimbabwe," the MDC said.

Independence celebrations this year come as many Zimbabweans face an upward struggle to survive.

At least 80 percent of the country's 11,6 million people live well below the poverty line, and the recent fuel price increases are bound to plunge many Zimbabweans even deeper into poverty and misery.

Sapa-AFP