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Carter, others lash out at Darfur misery          Send a link to a friend

[October 04, 2007]  KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- Prominent world figures led by former President Carter and Desmond Tutu of South Africa said Thursday they were shocked by the suffering in Darfur and criticized Sudan's government in exceptionally harsh terms.  [Caption: A resident looks on during a visit Wednesday by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in Kabkabiya town in Darfur. Carter got in a shouting match Wednesday with Sudanese security officials who blocked him from a town in Darfur where he was trying to meet representatives of ethnic African refugees from the ongoing conflict. The visit by "The Elders," which is headed by Carter and Nobel Peace laureate Desmond Tutu, is largely a symbolic move by a host of respected figures to push all sides to make peace in Darfur. (AP Photo/ Alfred de Montesquiou)] click on picture for larger image

International visitors to Darfur usually speak cautiously about the region's misery while on Sudanese territory to avoid irking the government by focusing on its role in the violence that has killed more than 200,000 people and made 2.5 million refugees.

But the group of prominent personalities including former statesmen and international officials was sharp and direct in closing comments after a two-day tour of Darfur.

Carter spoke in an Associated Press interview of a "crime against humanity" in Darfur, pointing at the government-backed Arab janjaweed militias' guilt in the "ethnic cleansing" of ethnic Africans in the region.

His delegation struck the same tone at a news conference with Sudanese journalists in Khartoum early Thursday.

The wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela talked about the horrors of widespread rape for Darfur refugees, one of the most taboo issues for Sudan's government -- which denies it.

Graca Machel said women graphically recounted to her their ordeals. "They even used gestures to show us how brutally they were treated," said an emotional Machel.

She said she raised the problem during the group's meeting with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir late Wednesday. "I have to confess it was the most depressing moment of our conversation," she said. "The government doesn't seem to have an understanding of what it means for women to say 'We are being raped.'"

She also warned that "the space of freedom" and the space for humanitarian work "is shrinking" in Darfur, calling on the government to change its methods.

Carter urged the government to cease air raids on Darfur civilians.

"There is no reason for the government to continue to bomb people," Carter told the unusually mute Sudanese reporters, who didn't ask a single question at the press conference.

Tutu underlined that "peace, that is so indispensable for Darfur and Sudan, depends on democracy." The former anti-apartheid figure described the "unbelievable squalor" refugees live in, saying "Darfur is one of the most awful places in the world."

The group was created two months ago with a mission of promoting world peace. It is chaired by Mandela, but he was too frail to make the trip to Darfur. Four of the 12 made this week's trip, along with billionaire Richard Branson, a financier of the group.

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The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of discrimination. Sudan's government is accused of retaliating by unleashing the janjaweed -- a charge it denies.

Most of the meetings in Darfur on Tuesday and Wednesday appeared to be with government-vetted people, and several local leaders of ethnic African refugees told the AP they had been intimidated into turning down invitations by the delegation's mission.

Carter got in a fight with the head of national security in the town of Kabkabiya on Wednesday because he was being blocked from meeting any of the ethnic African refugees, and his security entourage urged him to let the feared state police have their way.

The group also called for the peace process between Khartoum and semiautonomous southern Sudan to be invigorated, raising fears its failure could lead to imminent "new bloodshed."

Carter said al-Bashir had invited his foundation, the Carter Center, to come monitor general elections due in 2009 -- the country's first in over two decades. Carter said he would consult with his foundation on the matter.

The group also urged all of Darfur's splintered rebel factions to accept new peace negotiations due to open in Libya later this month.

The visit came two days after the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur was attacked by a rebel faction that killed 10 peacekeepers.

The delegation voiced its outrage at the AU's poor equipment and funding, calling on Western countries to commit strong support to the new, 26,000 force of U.N. and AU peacekeepers due to take over on Jan. 1.

The new force risks delays if it doesn't receive enough commitments, and the group said it was essential for the safety of civilians that it urgently deploy.

"Tell your governments to get cracking," Tutu said, addressing the Western public.

He said the delegation had been anxious not to appear as "another tourist group seeking photo opportunities" in Darfur. They vowed to use their influence to press Western powers for commitments to the peacekeeping force in the coming weeks.

[Associated Press; by Alfred de Montesquiou]

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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