'CIA, M16 trained Zimbabwe's CIOs'

STATE security minister Sydney Sekeramayi has said it was ironic that the West was leading calls for so-called security sector reforms having helped train the country's defence and security establishment for more than 20 years.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC-T party is insisting that reform of the security sector remains one of the outstanding issues in the implementation of the Global Political Agreement.

The party blames service chiefs for helping President Robert Mugabe stay in power by brutalising its supporters during the inconclusive 2008 elections and wants to force them out of office before new elections due this year.

However, Zanu-PF has ruled out any tempering with the defence and security establishment and Sekeramayi said Wednesday that they were surprised the West was backing calls for the so-called reforms.

He said: "The British Military Advisory and Training Team left the country in 2001 after a 20-year stint with our army. They did not complain then, why now?

"In the same vein, the President's Department held various exchange programmes with other Western intelligence services among them CIA, BND (Germany intelligence) and M16."

Sekeramayi also said the security services chiefs must remain in office whatever party assumes power after elections expected later this year.

"We will be going for elections in this country and one would want to assume and expect that any government that comes into power will respect the existing institutions in the country," he said in a lecture at the Zimbabwe Defence College.

"All these officers were very active in the liberation struggle and they are in their current positions not by favour but competence. We would expect that the professional role they play would be respected. We do not expect any leader to say that they do not want so and so.

"The talk about removing the commandant elements is misguided. It is not something originating internally but from external forces. It is something that we must reject. It is an attempt to destabilise the defence and security forces.

"It is an attempt to plant a spirit which removes the discipline that is there among the security forces but we believe that our defence and security forces will continue to be disciplined and professional."

However, a number of serving generals have already publicly stated that they would not work under a leader who did not participate in the country's liberation struggle, a thinly veiled reference to Tsvangirai.