Foreign military strikes in Libya against Moamer Kadhafi's rule would not be needed if African leaders held their peers to account, South Africa's Desmond Tutu said Sunday.
"If Africa's leaders held their peers to account there would be no need for the people of Libya to suffer human rights violations. And there would be no need for United Nations-sanctioned military interventions in Libya," Tutu said.
"Instead, Colonel Moamer Kadhafi has for more than 40 years honed his skills in the art of resource management to win friends and influence people. And as a result, Africa seems powerless to stop him," the Nobel Peace laureate said in a statement.
Tutu said he hoped events in north Africa would bring a new period of accountability for African leaders.
"May events in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya herald a new dawn for African politics in which leaders are not only accountable to their people but also answerable to their peers."
Action by pro-Kadhafi forces were an embarrassment to the continent, he said.
"The scenes of brutality being meted out with sophisticated weaponry by Libyan security forces against their own civilian population make God weep," said Tutu.
"With every blow they strike, each human rights abuse they perpetrate, they bring shame on Africa."
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