The Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) is the national intelligence agency or "secret police" of Zimbabwe. The CIO was formed in Rhodesia on the instructions of Prime Minister Winston Field in 1963 at the dissolution of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and took over from the Federal Intelligence and Security Bureau, which was a co-ordinating bureau analysing intelligence gathered by the British South Africa Police and the police forces of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. An intelligence agency is a governmental organization devoted to gathering of information by means of espionage (spying), communication interception, cryptoanalysis, cooperation with other institutions, and evaluation of public sources. ... A secret police (sometimes political police) force is a police organization that operates in secret to enforce state security. ... This article is about the former British colony of (Southern) Rhodesia , today Zimbabwe. ... A prime minister may be either: the chief or leading member of the cabinet of the top-level government in a country having a parliamentary system of government; or the official, in countries with a semi-presidential system of government, appointed to manage the civil service and execute the directives... Sir Winston Joseph Field (1904 1969) founded the Rhodesian Front Party with Ian Smith. ... 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was a semi-independent state in southern Africa that existed from 1953 to the end of 1963, comprising the former British colony of Southern Rhodesia and the Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland protectorates. ... The British South Africa Police (BSAP) was a regimented police force which operated in Britains Southern African territories such as Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia. ... Flag of Northern Rhodesia Northern Rhodesia was a British protectorate in south central Africa, originally created in 1911 from the combination of the North West Rhodesia and North East Rhodesia areas of Rhodesia controlled by the British South Africa Company. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...

The first head of the CIO was Deputy Commissioner Ken Flower; during his tenure the BSAP Special Branch Headquarters were incorporated within the CIO, while the Special Branch retained its internal security function within the BSAP. Special Branch is the arm of the British, Irish and many Commonwealth police forces that deals with national security matters. ...

Astonishingly, Prime Minister Robert Mugabe was content to keep Ken Flower in the role of Head of the CIO after majority rule in 1980, when the country's name changed to Zimbabwe. This was seen by some commentators as proof that Flower had worked covertly and intermittently with the British intelligence services to undermine Ian Smith's government, and was in sharp contrast to the treatment of General Peter Walls, chief of the Rhodesian Armed Forces, who was exiled and deprived of Zimbabwean citizenship in 1980. A prime minister may be either: the chief or leading member of the cabinet of the top-level government in a country having a parliamentary system of government; or the official, in countries with a semi-presidential system of government, appointed to manage the civil service and execute the directives... Robert Gabriel Mugabe (born February 21, 1924) has been the head of government in Zimbabwe, first as Prime Minister and later as first executive President, since 1980. ... Ian Smith Ian Douglas Smith (born April 8, 1919) was the Premier of the British Crown Colony of Southern Rhodesia from April 13, 1964 to November 11, 1965 and the Prime Minister of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) from November 11, 1965 to June 1, 1979, when Rhodesia was ruled by its...

In recent years international human rights organisations such as Amnesty International have criticised the CIO's role in alleged internal repression, which is said on occasions to have involved torture. Amnesty International (commonly known as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization with the stated purpose of promoting all the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international standards. ...

See also

• Operation Murambatsvina

Operation Murambatsvina (Shona for Operation Drive Out Trash), also referred to as Operation Restore Order, began as a crackdown against illegal trading and illegal housing, conducted by the government of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. ...

References

• Flower, Ken (1987). Serving Secretly - An Intelligence Chief on Record Rhodesia into Zimbabwe 1964 to 1981, London, John Murray.