Madrid/Tegucigalpa - Honduras' ousted president Manuel Zelaya has said he is in fear of his life, claiming that mercenaries could be sent to kill him at the Brazilian embassy where he has taken refuge, Spanish National Radio (RNE) reported Thursday. "Groups of mercenaries could enter here to carry out a killing," Zelaya told RNE in a telephone interview from the embassy in Tegucigalpa.
In a telephone interview with the Spanish daily El Mundo, Zelaya said the United States and the Organization of American States (OAS) had helped to foil one plan to kill him and to make it look like suicide.
"Today there is still the risk that the embassy will be assaulted and my suicide will be announced," he said. The de facto government headed by Roberto Micheletti, however, has denied plans to assault the embassy.
"I have been imprisoned" at the embassy by "a military dictatorship which is preventing me from exercising my functions," said the president, who returned secretly to Honduras on Monday.
Zelaya had been in exile following a June 28 coup.
The ousted president told RNE he would "fight on foot rather than dying on (my) knees before the military dictatorship."
Zelaya nevertheless said he would put "no conditions" to a dialogue with the de facto government other than asking it to "learn to respect democracy."
Honduras' de facto foreign ministry meanwhile accused Brazil of "interfering" in the country's internal affairs and of having turned its embassy into a "mediatic subversion centre" used by Zelaya to incite his supporters to engage in violence, looting and damaging property.
The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) expressed its "profound concern" over the situation in Honduras, calling for an urgent meeting of the United Nations' Security Council to discuss it.
In New York, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos earlier said Madrid was planning to send its ambassador back to Tegucigalpa, along with those of the European Union and the OAS, which withdrew their representatives following the coup.
The ambassadors would be sent back in support of Zelaya, and the OAS was also sending a delegation to mediate in the conflict, OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza said, explaining he himself might travel to the Central American country Friday or Saturday.
Thousands of Zelaya supporters meanwhile took to the streets overnight as officials confirmed that at least one person had been killed in the unrest since Zelaya's return. Zelaya, however, told RNE that more people had been killed.
A 65-year-old man died Wednesday after being shot Tuesday night in confrontations between demonstrators and police, the Honduran medical examiner's office said. Media reports said a second protester had also died in hospital.
A number of police and protesters have also been injured in the clashes, some from gunshots. Dozens of protesters have been taken into custody.
A curfew has been in force since Monday, but the government said it would be lifted on Thursday.
Micheletti ordered the deployment Wednesday of the military to assist police after looting and vandalism occurred in parts of Tegucigalpa.
New clashes occurred Wednesday as thousands of Zelaya's supporters tried to break through police barricades and force their way into the embassy.
Long lines formed in front of supermarkets and other shops, some of which had been looted, and petrol stations. Several poor neighbourhoods looked like war zones, full of barricades and burning tyres.
Security Ministry spokesman Orlis Cerrato warned that "police will increase the level of force" against those violating the law.
He blamed Zelaya supporters for allegedly provoking police to create "martyrs" for their cause while Zelaya said he was not resorting to violence.
In a statement read Tuesday night by de facto Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez Contreras on national television, Micheletti said he was prepared to talk to Zelaya, if he recognized the elections scheduled for November 29.
Zelaya and the international community are refusing to recognize the elections because they are being organized under what is seen as an illegitimate government.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that the United Nations was suspending its technical assistance for the elections in response to the political crisis.
