October 03, 2007

Carter Loses His Cool In Darfur

In a moment uncharacteristic for the notorious nice guy, former President Jimmy Carter lost his temper with a Sudanese security official during a visit to the Darfur region on Tuesday.

On his way to visit a tribal elder in the city of Kabkabiya, Carter was suddenly blocked by a guard, who would only give the name Omar. "You can't go. It's not on the program!" Omar told Carter, who angrily replied: "We're going to anyway!"

AP reports that Carter entered the town to meet with refugees who were "too frightened to attend a scheduled meeting at a nearby compound."

British billionaire Richard Branson and Graca Machel, rights campaigner and wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela, were accompanying the former president, and "tried to ease his frustration" while "his Secret Service detail urged him to get into a car and leave."

In his more typical diplomatic fashion, Carter was eventually able to strike a deal with the Sudanese representatives, although reports vary on the details of their agreement. But, Carter delivered a promise to the guards before he left: "I'll tell President Bashir about this."

Carter is in Darfur representing "The Elders," a group of statesmen put together by Mandela earlier this year in order to "launch diplomatic assaults on the globe's most intractable problems." Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu joined Carter in leading the trip to Darfur this week, a largely symbolic gesture to pressure all sides involved in the conflict to reach a peace agreement.

The visit comes at a time of great tension in the region. Last week, 10 African Union peace-keeping troops were killed and several dozen others captured by armed rebels, at a time when the United Nations is trying to convince member countries to commit more troops to Darfur. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern that "some of those countries may have second thoughts about participating" because of the killings.

Speaking to reporters today, Carter said that the main mission of the Elders' three-day trip to the region was to secure free and fair elections for Sudan in 2009. He said that the visit was "proving effective" as al-Bashir told him that Sudan has committed $100 million to a fund for Darfur's reconstruction, while Chinese diplomats have pledged another $200 million.

Posted at 11:15 AM
Posted to: Africa, Jimmy Carter, Sudan
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