Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has urged his country's intelligence service to be ever on guard, saying the country is under renewed threats from western powers, a state daily reported on Friday.
Laying the foundation stone at the construction site of a national intelligence school, Mugabe named Britain and the United States, saying "they have unleashed a multiplicity of players, including non-state actors, to destabilise our nation".
"The phenomenon of the use of non-state actors has increased the vulnerability of small states to the dictates of big powers which can use non-governmental organisations... to threaten the sovereignty of small states," The Herald quoted Mugabe as saying.
The national school of intelligence to be named after the veteran ruler - in power since the country's independence from colonial power Britain in 1980 - will be based on a farm in Mazowe, 40 kilometres north-west of the capital.
It offer degrees and diplomas in security and intelligence studies to students drawn from Zimbabwe's defence forces, immigration and revenue authorities and the security service arms of neighbouring countries.
Mugabe said the threats facing his government called for more vigilant security arms.
"The important role of defending our country cannot be left to mediocre officers incapable of comprehending and analytically evaluating the operational environment to ensure that the sovereignty of our state is not only preserved but enhanced," he said.
"It is the expected purpose of this institution to vigorously interrogate all issues pertaining to our insecurity and evolve methods for our preservation."
Mugabe often accuses Britain and the United States of harbouring plans to use the opposition to topple him after his government policies and what many observers regarded as fraudulent elections led to a serious deterioration in his relations with the west. - Sapa-AFP