Freetown rebels hold journalist

TWO EUROPEAN journalists were abducted yesterday by rebels in Sierra Leone who later asked one to deliver a guerrilla demand to the authorities.

Patrick Saint Paul of the French daily Le Figaro said he and a Spaniard, Javier Espinosa, of the newspaper El Mundo, were seized in a suburb of the capital, Freetown.

The rebels headed with the two into the nearby bush where they later released Mr Saint Paul. The Frenchman said the rebels ordered him to pass on their demand for negotiations with Nigerian-led West African troops pursuing the guerrillas. They said they would not release Mr Espinosa until their demand was broadcast on radio.

The journalists had left their hotel in the western part of Freetown earlier yesterday for the eastern suburbs where the rebels, retreating from the advancing West African troops, are reported to be committing widespread atrocities against civilians.

A British operation to distribute aid to injured and displaced people in Sierra Leone entered its second day yesterday. But after a new rebel advance on the capital, evidence was emerging of a command crisis among pro-government forces.

The RFA Oak Leaf - a supply vessel to HMS Norfolk, the frigate that has been off Freetown for nearly two weeks - was due to arrive last night with rice and detergent. On Sunday, 15 tons of British and European Union aid was flown in.

But it became clear that accounts of an end to three weeks of fighting in and around Freetown were premature. Sporadic violence has returned to east-central Freetown after reports that rebels are hiding among refugees from the city's razed east end.

After days of rumours about disarray within the Nigerian-dominated command of the 15,000-strong West African force defending the elected president of Sierra Leone, Nigeria's foreign minister and chief of general staff flew in for an emergency meeting in Freetown yesterday.

According to sources close to the West African force, known as Ecomog, donor nations to West Africa are urging the Nigerians to pass control of the Sierra Leonean operation to Guinea. "The Guineans are better soldiers - trained by the French and the Soviets before them. They are more motivated because their country is potentially under threat if the Sierra Leone conflict continues," said the source.

It is not clear what was discussed at the high-level meeting yesterday - between Nigeria's Foreign Minister, Ignatius Olisiemeka, his Sierra Leonean counterpart, Sama Banya, as well as Nigeria's Air Marshal Daggash and the Ecomog chief, General Timothy Shelpidi. But according to a Western diplomat, it has been made clear to Nigeria that donor nations to Ecomog are disappointed with the effort to oust the Liberian-backed bush-warrior rebels threatening President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.

The Nigerian troops - many of them battle-weary after serving in Liberia - have not been paid since 10 December. Many, who are supposed to receive $150 a month, (pounds 93) say openly that they do not see why they should put down their lives for Sierra Leone.