HARARE, Zimbabwe — President Robert Mugabe vowed yesterday his government will not tolerate dissent created “under the guise of freedom of expression.”Mugabe, in his annual state of the nation address to parliament, said law enforcement agencies will continue to crush dissent in the troubled southern African nation. He said government opponents were bent on creating anarchy and pushing what he has described as a British attempt to topple his government.

In September, police thwarted a march by the main labour federation in Harare protesting deepening poverty. At least 16 labour leaders were assaulted by police, several of them suffering bone fractures and other injuries, according to independent doctors and human rights organisations.

Mugabe said afterward the labour leaders were resisting arrest for holding a banned protest and “reasonable force” was used to break up the march.

He has repeatedly accused Britain, the former colonial power, the United States and Western nations of backing the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and the labour-backed opposition Movement for Democratic Change in a campaign for his ouster.

“Our country continues to enjoy peace and tranquility and will defend its sovereignty,” Mugabe said Wednesday in the address broadcast on state television.

Mugabe blamed the worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980 on what he termed “illegal overt and covert sanctions” against the country by Western nations along with southern Africa’s susceptibility to drought.

Western aid, loans and investment dried up after Mugabe ordered the often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms in 2000, leading to six years of political and economic turmoil following disruptions in the agriculture-based economy.

Britain, the United States and the European Union have imposed travel and visa restrictions on Mugabe and ruling party leaders to protest alleged violations of human and democratic rights since 2000.

Mugabe said embargoes were “the punishment for our daring recovery of the land” from the descendants of mostly British colonial-era settlers.

He said the next phase in black empowerment was to take majority control of foreign owned mining companies and exports of gold and other minerals.

As the country became increasingly isolated by the West, Mugabe said his “Look East” policy paid dividends with promises of investment from China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Tourism to Zimbabwe from Asia increased this year, showing the nation was a safe and attractive destination “despite the hostile media” in the West, he said.

The state controls Zimbabwe’s only broadcast stations and the main newspapers. Under sweeping media laws, the only independent daily newspaper was banned in 2003.

Since the ruling party dominated Parliament passed equally sweeping public order and security laws in 2002, opposition and labour meetings have been routinely banned or broken up violently by riot police.

The country is suffering acute shortages of food, hard currency, gasoline and essential imports. Official inflation is running at 1,090 percent, the highest in the world.