Africa Media Watch

Mozambique's "hollow" police probe, a call in Namibia to "halt the regression", and Uganda's war on drug peddlers .All this and more in this week's Africa Media Watch.

Mozambique journalist's murder probe

Mozambique's independent daily news sheet Metical questions "the sad scenario" surrounding the investigation into the murder of its editor and prominent journalist Carlos Cardoso.

"Almost a month after the barbaric assassination of Carlos Cardoso, the police have come up with what looks like a hollow file, consisting of a mere four or five pages," Metical writes.

Police notorious for lack of technical resources and incompetence.

Metical news sheet

"Well-placed sources have assured us that no one has taken the case seriously."

The paper rejects President Joaquim Chissano's assurances that Interpol is on the case.

The murder, Metical says, is being investigated only by Mozambique's Criminal Investigation Police which, it alleges, "has become notorious for its lack of technical resources and incompetence."

Namibia: confidence "battered"

In Windhoek, The Namibian's end-of-year editorial "Let's Not Succumb To A Culture Of Violence" says the tenth year of independence should have been an opportunity to celebrate Namibia's achievements, and to re-commit to the challenges of becoming a democratic, prosperous nation at peace with itself and its neighbours.

"Sadly, it has not," The Namibian notes ruefully. "We have come to the end of a year in which the country's confidence has been battered."

Intolerance and bigotry hold sway

The Namibian

Instead of the feeling that the country has made real progress since 1990, the year ends on a note where Namibia is "simply trying to halt a decline and a regression towards the familiar throwbacks of a horrible past."

After last year's short-lived rebellion in the country's northeastern Caprivi strip, "Young Namibia, Africa's democratic, peaceful promise, was never to be the same again," the paper comments.

Silent majority

"In the public discourse, it seemed like intolerance and bigotry, rather than compassion and humanity, held sway this year," the paper says.

"With it, one has to wonder whether the bonds and rules that hold an orderly, civilised society together, are not being stressed beyond repair."

Namibians, in the main, are decent people who want peaceful lives, the paper says.

"Maybe the next year should be the one in which this silent majority exerts its influence again, in the spirit of the values embodied in our constitution."

Ghana's win fouled by football hooligans

In Accra, the Daily Graphic welcomes the success of Ghana's Hearts of Oak football club in defeating Esperance Sportive of Tunisia in the African Champions' Cup final in Accra - a showpiece event marred by chaotic scenes of violence.

Hearts of Oak fan

Hearts' victory "provided an opportunity for the re-launching of the nation on the African and global soccer scene with the view to helping the nation to regain its greatness and pride of place," the paper enthuses.

"The feat of Hearts is ample testimony of the fact that with proper planning coupled with hard work and determination, we could rise to the top in many spheres of human endeavour."

Fans' unruly behaviour nearly marred the beauty of the game

Ghana Daily Graphic

But, the paper notes, "the only sour spot which we must never allow to recur is the unruly behaviour of a few of the fans which caused the police to react rather harshly and nearly marred the beauty of the game.

"They should learn to be calm and disciplined at all times." Uganda's drug-peddlers meet their Waterloo

The police anti-narcotics squad in Uganda have a new weapon to tackle the rise in drug-trafficking.

"This is a toilet for those suspected to have swallowed drugs in pellet form," Acting Criminal Investigation Department chief, Mr Erasmus Opio, told Kampala's Sunday Vision newspaper.

The £11,000 facility, called a Waterloo, was donated by the United Nations Drug Control Program.

Mr Opio said Ugandan youths were becoming increasingly involved in drugs use, production and peddling.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.