'Zimbabwe's peace, security under threat'

Zimbabwe is a stable county, but its peace is being threatened by a sustained regime change agenda sponsored by the West that seeks to counter the successful land reform programme initiated by the Government at the turn of the millennium, Defence Minister Dr Sidney Sekeramayi has said. He said this yesterday while addressing military officers attending Joint Command and Staff Course Number 30 in Harare on Zimbabwe's defence policy.

"The major threat to Zimbabwe's peaceful existence is the Western sponsored regime change agenda that has been strengthened by their opposition to our land reform programme which forms an integral feature of the Government's policy and is in line with the ethos of the liberation struggle," he said.

"The basic inspiration that we must regain is control over our God-given land both in terms of governance and also in terms of the use of the resources. This has, obviously as we all know, led to an unrelenting attack on us by the West. The objective of the regime change agenda orchestrated by the West, led by the United Kingdom and the USA, is economic destabilisation through illegal economic sanctions, psychological information warfare, inclusive political interference, diplomatic isolation and socio-cultural intrusion.

"There is no doubt that their ultimate objective is to cause economic hardship among the population so that they result in frustration, poverty and push them into revolt against the Government.

"Indeed people have been into revolting against their Governments." Dr Sekeramayi applauded Zimbabweans for shunning such unconstitutional deception. He said the country's economic blueprint - Zim-Asset - was aimed at transforming and empowering ordinary citizens economically.

"Zim-Asset was crafted for the purpose of guiding Government ministries and Zimbabweans in achieving sustainable development and social equity through indigenisation, empowerment, and that employment creation can be propelled by judicious exploitation of the country's resources," he said.

He outlined the four clusters under Zim-Asset saying they were the machinery that would enable the country to achieve economic growth. Dr Sekeramayi said Zimbabwe pursued a non-aggressive and non-hostile defence policy.

As such, he said the country would not interfere in the affairs of other countries. "Zimbabwe's defence policy prioritises the country's domestic stability and prevention of external aggression," he said.

Zimbabwe always exhausted cardinal diplomatic principles of handling disputes with other countries and that had seen the country enjoying peace for the past 37 years.

"The country's defence policy resonates with the country's Look East policy which has enabled Zimbabwe Defence Forces to establish cordial relations with many armed forces with friendly countries in Asia and the Far East and has derived innumerable benefits from such relations. Zimbabwe subscribes to treaties, conventions and actions aimed at arms control."

He said Zimbabwe does not aspire to develop any weapon of mass destruction, adding that the country had also participated in many peace-keeping missions across the globe.