Doddering Around Africa

Better He's Over There, Than Over Here...


Did you hear?

Former President Jimmuh Carter was seen having a fit and trying to bust a blood vessel over in the Sudan yesterday.

KABKABIYA, Sudan (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter confronted Sudanese security services on a visit to Darfur Wednesday, shouting "You don't have the power to stop me!" at some who blocked him from meeting refugees of the conflict.

The 83-year-old Carter, in Darfur as part of a delegation of respected international figures known as "The Elders," wanted to visit a refugee camp. But the U.N. mission in Sudan deemed that too dangerous.

Instead, Carter agreed to fly to the World Food Program compound in the North Darfur town of Kabkabiya, where he was supposed to meet with ethnic African refugees, many of whom were chased from their homes by militias and the Arab-dominated government's forces.

But none of the refugees showed up and Carter decided to walk into the town - a volatile stronghold of the pro-government janjaweed militia - to meet refugees too frightened to attend the meeting at the compound.

He was able to make it to a school where he met with one tribal representative and was preparing to go further into town when Sudanese security officers stopped him.

"You can't go," the local chief of the feared Sudanese secret police, who only gave his first name as Omar, ordered Carter. "It's not on the program!"

"We're going to anyway!" an angry Carter retorted as a small crowd began to gather around. "You don't have the power to stop me."

I hope they got Jimmuh wrappped up good in Kevlar, because I don't want to spend the end of this year watching reruns of his funeral and enduring socialist salutes to the disaster that was his four year Presidency.

Heh...


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