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| author/source:Zimbabwean |
| published:Fri 16-Jun-2006 |
| posted on this site:Sat 17-Jun-2006 |
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| Article Type : News |
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| "Believes that he is under threat both from without and within" |
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Johannesburg - The Zimbabwean military has placed anti-aircraft guns at Harare International Airport, President Robert Mugabe’s official residence and at some of his private houses around the city. The move comes after the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) advised Mugabe that a squadron of the British Special Air Services (SAS) were undergoing a field training exercise earlier this year on a farm in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province. "The information was interpreted as an advanced preparation by Britain and the United States to send in a commando team in order to kill him," says a confidential report by Continental Business Management and Research (CBM&R) – a Johannesburg-based risk management company. Political observers linked this evidence of an increasing siege mentality on the part of the ageing dictator to the imminent mass protests by the opposition MDC and Mugabe’s recent panic-stricken calls for talks with his arch-enemy, British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"Mugabe is running scared. He is a terrified old man. There are no two ways about it," said one commentator. "He obviously believes that he is under threat both from without and within the country. This is ridiculous as Britain has consistently denied any intention to ‘invade’ Zimbabwe. Its troops are already over-stretched in Iraq and Afghanistan." The re-location of the weapons systems, believed to included Zu-23 Anti Aircraft cannonry and an as yet undescribed Surface-to-Air missile system, were likely deployed to forestall any air insertion by commandos, says the CBM&R report. The group’s assessment is that once on the ground any invading team would encounter little resistance from the Zimbabwean National Army (ZNA) with around 10 000 effective soldiers and "a Presidential Guard that failed abysmally at recent shooting range exercise in addressing target boards set at 300 meters".
Soon after ‘winning’ the controversial 2000 elections Mugabe became increasingly paranoid. He deployed soldiers and policemen to guard strategic infrastructure such as bridges and railway lines in anticipation of what he said was "an imminent British invasion". He even renamed his executive "the war cabinet". The assessment says it is highly unlikely that South Africa would allow British forces to use its territory as a forward base to mount any hostile activity against neighbouring Zimbabwe – "given its policy of quiet diplomacy under President Thabo Mbeki that is economically sustaining the Zanu PF state". A joint UK-USA raid was more likely to come from Botswana, where the United States maintains a sizeable airbase as part of its strategic airlift capability into Southern Africa. However, the report dismissed this as unlikely because President Festus Mogae was engaged in the transfer of power to the new leadership of Major General Seretse Ian Khama.
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