Africa Media Watch

This week's Africa Media Watch is devoted to reaction from around the continent to the unfolding crisis in Sierra Leone.

Most African commentators are united in the view that the Lome peace accord signed last year by Sierra Leone's warring parties was deeply flawed.

As Uganda's The Monitor puts it,the time has now come to "get tough" with Foday Sankoh's rebel Revolutionary United Front.

A wise mix of good politics and firmness might just end the Sankoh menace

The Monitor, Kampala

"Sankoh and the RUF won at the negotiating table what they had failed to get in battle. They could only have been emboldened, and their killing and abduction of UN forces is just part of a ploy to increase their leverage," the paper says.

It says the rebels know the international community "will not risk paying the high cost of subduing them militarily" but that this is just what is required.

"The political winds are totally against Sankoh and the RUF. A wise mix of good politics and firmness might just end the Sankoh menace," the paper says.

What hope DR Congo mission?

The Kampala daily New Vision urges the UN to revise and strengthen the mandate of its troops in the troubled West African country.

RUF leader Sankoh: language of force

"In Sierra Leone, 14-year-old rebels have managed to disarm otherwise well-trained UN troops with impunity," the paper says.

It questions what good the current mandate given to the Unamsil mission serves "if the very peace they are purportedly keeping breaks down right in front of them?"

Both newspapers ask how a possible future UN peace mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo could hope to succeed if the Sierra Leone operation were to end in disaster.

Exercise in appeasement?

Sierra Leone's own Concord Times pulls no punches in its assessment of the situation, expressing incredulity at UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's stated "disappointment" at the behaviour of Sankoh and the RUF.

"Can this be serious? Disappointed that a bunch of sociopaths have not honoured an agreement, a piece of paper? The whole Lome agreement was a shameless exercise in appeasement, made more repulsive by the fact that the more pressing aspects of the agreement - a strong and aggressive Unamsil presence - has never been taken seriously," the paper says.

"Foday Sankoh and his RUF can understand only the language of force, nothing more, nothing less," it states.

South Africa's Mail & Guardian gives a forthright verdict on the UN's record in Sierra Leone thus far.

The [Lome] agreement inexplicably failed to contain penalties for non-compliance,

Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg

"The United Nations intervention in Sierra Leone has been flawed since the beginning. It misjudged the peace agreement last summer, its mandate is so limited it is self-defeating, and the performance of its troops has been shambolic and at times humiliating," it says.

Many believe the UN's first mistake was in accepting a peace agreement that left Sankoh and his forces in charge of the country's diamond-producing areas.

"The agreement inexplicably failed to contain penalties for non-compliance," the paper points out.

Western "double standards"

The Liberian news magazine The Perspective, meanwhile, sees the "unfolding terror" of Sierra Leone as a sign of "the ineptness of Africa's political leaders and the insensitivity of the world community when it comes to African crises".

It contrasts the resoluteness of the Western interventions in Kosovo and East Timor with the current situation and quotes an unnamed Sierra Leone diplomat in Washington who criticizes the "double standards" of the West.

Mission should not be derailed

With many Kenyan peacekeepers among the 500 UN soldiers being held hostage by RUF rebels, the Nairobi daily The Nation urges resolve in the face of the crisis.

Kenyan peacekeepers should not withdraw, says The Nation

"It is heartening that Kenya has no intention of pulling out its troops from the United Nations peacekeeping force. The noble effort should not be derailed by the bloodlust of a tyrannical warlord," it says.

"Kenya has no intention of getting embroiled in foreign conflicts of allowing its soldiers to be used as cannon fodder. In the meantime our forces must not retaliate, or turn tail and abort a most humanitarian mission. To do the latter would only encourage warmongers," the paper says.

Africa's 'problem of leadership'

Our problem in Africa is that of bankrupt, immoral leadership

Ghana's Accra Mail

A commentary in the Accra Mail from Ghana looks for a wider lesson in the renewed anguish of Sierra Leone's people, saying that while the rest of the world can try to help Africa, "ultimately we are our own responsibility".

"The UN has asked regional leaders to have a stern word with Foday Sankoh. But why should he listen to people whose own history and ascent to power are as dubious, illegitimate and foul as his own?" it asks.

"Our problem in Africa is that of bankrupt, immoral leadership," the paper concludes.

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.

Next week's Media Watch is on 19 May