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State agents to spy on internet users
ZimOnline
November 02, 2006

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=402

BULAWAYO - President Robert Mugabe has directed the spy Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) to infiltrate internet service providers to monitor private communication and flush out journalists using the internet to feed "negative information" about his government to the international media, sources told ZimOnline.

The sources, who are senior officers with the secret service and the police that will also help in spying on internet users, said Mugabe gave the order during a routine security meeting with security commanders held on October 20 at his Munhumutapa offices in Harare.

Minister of State Security Didymus Mutasa, CIO Director-General Happyton Bonyongwe, Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander General Constantine Chiwenga attended the meeting.

"The President was in a mean mood during the meeting, lambasting both the police and the CIO for failing to apprehend even a few of the journalists purveying negative information about the ruling ZANU PF party and government," said a source, who spoke on condition he was not named.

According to the source, Bonyongwe assured the President that the CIO would begin deploying its agents at private internet shops across the country starting this week.

Apart from CIO agents, undercover members of the Police Internal Security Investigations (PISI) that normally spies on pro-opposition police officers will also be deployed at internet cafes posing as café attendants or ordinary surfers.

An officer with the PISI who is based at Ross Camp police depot in the second largest city of Bulawayo said: "We were briefed at the Bulawayo operations room in Ross Camp on Friday afternoon (October 27) by the officer commanding operations in the province, Assistant Commissioner Crowd Chirenje.

"He said we would be deployed at internet cafes but said we would have to undergo some computer training first."

Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba was not immediately available for comment on the matter while Mutasa, who oversees the CIO, refused to take questions on the matter.

"I do not discuss such privileged information with the press," said Mutasa before switching off his mobile phone.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena would neither confirm nor deny that undercover officers will spy on private internet users but he insisted that the law enforcement agency shall do all it can to prevent people from writing "falsehoods against the government".

Bvudzijena said: "It is our duty to protect the interests of this country and we will do everything in our power to make sure that the country's security is maintained. We cannot allow people to write falsehoods against the government because that will incite people to rebel."

ZimOnline was unable to reach Zimbabwe Internet Service Providers Association chairperson Nicky Lear to establish whether internet firms were aware of the latest government plans to spy on their clients. Lear was said to be in hospital and unable to take calls from journalists.

But our sources said those caught using the internet to send out information considered negative or detrimental to the interests of the state will be arrested and charged under the Criminal Codification Act.

The Act imposes sentences of up to 20 years in jail on journalists or other citizens convicted of publishing false information or statements that are prejudicial to the state or are likely to cause, promote, or incite public disorder, or adversely affect the security or economic interests of the country.

The government, which controls enough parliamentary seats to enact whatever laws it may deem necessary, is in the process of enacting legislation to allow state agents to intercept internet and cell phone communications between private individuals and organisations in the country.

The Interception of Communications Bill that is before Parliament proposes to also empower state agents to open private mail sent by ordinary post as well as through licensed courier service providers.

Citizens and organisations will be barred from challenging interception of their communications at the courts but could appeal to the Minster of Transport and Communications, who in the first place grants authority for private mail or communication to be intercepted.

Civic and media organisations want the Bill withdrawn saying Zimbabwe already has more than its fair share of draconian laws that hinder the free flow of information while imposing severe restrictions on journalists and newspapers in the country.

Zimbabwe already has some of the worst media laws in the world with for example, journalists being liable to imprisonment for up to two years if caught practising without a licence from the state's Media and Information Commission.

Newspapers are also required to register with the commission with those failing to comply with the requirement facing closure and seizure of their equipment by the police.

The southern African nation, described by the World Association of Newspapers as one of the worst places for journalists in the world, has in the past three years shut down at least four newspapers including its largest circulating daily paper, The Daily News, for breaching the tough media laws.

The deployment of CIO and police agents at private internet cafes will place a major obstacle on independent news websites that have emerged to cover the information gap left after Mugabe shut down newspapers. - ZimOnline

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