News / National
Prepare for fresh onslaughts by foreigners, Mugabe tells Africa's spies
06 May 2013 at 18:49hrs | Views
President Robert Mugabe urged African intelligence services Monday to prepare for fresh onslaughts by foreigners and the continent's former colonizers to grasp its natural resources and potential wealth.
Mugabe said Africa's vast reserves of untapped resources and the world-wide recession have triggered a new scramble for control of its "raw wealth."
Opening a convention of the continent-wide 49-nation Committee of Intelligence and Security Services, Mugabe said outsiders have used at least 20 armed conflicts in Africa since 1990 to gather intelligence and deploy "stealth predator drones," unmanned surveillance aircraft, to spy on their countries.
"Our erstwhile colonizers continue to manipulate international institutional and conventions to justify unilateral military interventions in African states with the objective of extracting and unfairly exploiting our resources," Mugabe said.
He told Africa's annual meeting of security agents, who work under the cloak of secrecy, that they are now confronted by increasing human and drug trafficking, money laundering and cyber-terrorism.
Gen. Happyton Bonyongwe, head of Zimbabwe's feared domestic security agency, the Central Intelligence Organization, took over as chair of what is known as "the spies' organization" for the next year.
Among some 4,000 delegates at the opening were Zimbabwe's security commanders, the African Union's special representative on counter-terrorism and intelligence chiefs from as far afield as Sierra Leone, Senegal and other West African states, all of whom passed through strict airport-style metal detector devices.
Zimbabwean intelligence agents dressed in dark suits thronged the corridors of the downtown Harare convention center.
Mugabe said he hoped the visiting intelligence chiefs will enjoy "Zimbabwean hospitality" and visit the nation's tourist attractions. Accreditation forms for the convention asked delegates to provide details of their golfing handicap and several played golf in teams arranged Sunday.
Mugabe said Africa's vast reserves of untapped resources and the world-wide recession have triggered a new scramble for control of its "raw wealth."
Opening a convention of the continent-wide 49-nation Committee of Intelligence and Security Services, Mugabe said outsiders have used at least 20 armed conflicts in Africa since 1990 to gather intelligence and deploy "stealth predator drones," unmanned surveillance aircraft, to spy on their countries.
"Our erstwhile colonizers continue to manipulate international institutional and conventions to justify unilateral military interventions in African states with the objective of extracting and unfairly exploiting our resources," Mugabe said.
He told Africa's annual meeting of security agents, who work under the cloak of secrecy, that they are now confronted by increasing human and drug trafficking, money laundering and cyber-terrorism.
Gen. Happyton Bonyongwe, head of Zimbabwe's feared domestic security agency, the Central Intelligence Organization, took over as chair of what is known as "the spies' organization" for the next year.
Among some 4,000 delegates at the opening were Zimbabwe's security commanders, the African Union's special representative on counter-terrorism and intelligence chiefs from as far afield as Sierra Leone, Senegal and other West African states, all of whom passed through strict airport-style metal detector devices.
Zimbabwean intelligence agents dressed in dark suits thronged the corridors of the downtown Harare convention center.
Mugabe said he hoped the visiting intelligence chiefs will enjoy "Zimbabwean hospitality" and visit the nation's tourist attractions. Accreditation forms for the convention asked delegates to provide details of their golfing handicap and several played golf in teams arranged Sunday.
Source - AP
