Khartoum/Nairobi - Former US president Jimmy Carter, on a
diplomatic mission to Sudan's Darfur region, said meetings with the
Sudanese leader had been 'constructive' and that a 300-million-dollar
infusion was promised to rebuild the troubled region, the BBC
reported Wednesday.
Carter and three other members of a group of elder statesmen
brought together by former South African president Nelson Mandela
arrived to Darfur Tuesday after meetings with President Omar Hassan
al-Bashir on Monday, in a bid to solve the four-year conflict.
Carter told the BBC al-Bashir had promised 300 million dollars for
the desperately impoverished and conflicted region the size of France
- two-thirds of which would come from a loan from China.
The cash would 'help rebuild and repair the damage that has been
done' in Darfur, Carter said, and that it was 'a clear indication of
(al-Bashir's) commitment,' the BBC reported.
Sudan has been charged with arming militias known as the janjaweed
to crush an uprising by Darfur rebels who complained that the region
remained poor and neglected.
The conflict has since spiralled downward, with an ineffective
peace agreement, rebel groups splintering and Arab tribes beginning
to turn on each other. More than 200,000 people have been killed and
2.5 million forced from their homes since 2003.
The visit of the elders, which includes South African Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, Mozambican rights activist Graca Machel and veteran
peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, coincided with a bloody attack on an
African Union (AU) peacekeepers base in Darfur, which left 10 troops
dead.
The AU has urged troop contributing countries not to withdraw
because of the violent incursion.
A robust 26,000-strong hybrid UN-AU force is set to be deployed
early next year and will absorb the ill-equipped AU force of 7,000.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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