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And there is no sign that the conflict that is ravaging the country will end soon. Though on-site negotiators pressed last weekend to get ECOMOG-R.U.F. talks started again, they faced a number of problems. The R.U.F. leadership vacuum is one. Another is that Kabbah's government, having seen the effects of a partial victory before, is in no hurry to sue for peace. Aid agencies say the city is still too hot to begin bringing in badly needed food and medicine. On Saturday night, civilians in Freetown were down to desperate rations: leather and pig food. Nigerian commanders planning an offensive for this week worried about what tactics could possibly contain thousands of drug-addled adolescents. Said a major: "This is a battle between democracy and dementia."
--With reporting by William Dowell/New York