By Alfred de Montesquiou
Associated Press
Thursday, October 4, 2007

KABKABIYA, Sudan, Oct. 3 -- Former president Jimmy Carter confronted Sudanese security officials Wednesday during a visit to the western region of Darfur, shouting, "You don't have the power to stop me!" at some who blocked him from meeting refugees of the conflict.

Carter, 83, wanted to visit a refugee camp in South Darfur state, but the U.N. mission in Sudan deemed that too dangerous. Instead, he agreed to fly to the World Food Program compound in the North Darfur town of Kabkabiya, where he was supposed to meet with refugees, many of whom had been chased from their homes by government forces and Janjaweed militiamen.

But none of the refugees showed up, and Carter decided to walk into the town, a volatile Janjaweed stronghold, to meet refugees apparently too frightened to attend the meeting at the compound.

Carter reached 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. It's not on the program!" the local security chief, who gave only his first name as Omar, yelled at Carter, who is in Darfur as part of a delegation of international figures known as "the Elders."

"We're going to anyway!" Carter angrily retorted. "You don't have the power to stop me."

However, U.N. officials told Carter's entourage that the Sudanese state police could bar his way. Carter's traveling companions, billionaire businessman Richard Branson and Graca Machel, the wife of former South African president Nelson Mandela, tried to ease his frustration, and Carter's Secret Service detail urged him to get into a car and leave.

Carter later played down the encounter, saying the security chief was only doing his job.

"But it's true that I'm not accustomed to people telling me I can't walk down the street and meet people," he said after returning to a U.N. compound in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.

The visit by the delegation, which is headed by Carter and Desmond Tutu, both Nobel Peace laureates, is largely a symbolic move to push all sides in the Darfur conflict to make peace.

The crisis began in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of neglect. Sudan's government is accused of retaliating by unleashing the Janjaweed, which it denies. As many as 450,000 people have died of disease and violence, and more than 2.5 million have been displaced.

Carter said the main goal of his three-day visit to Sudan is to seek guarantees for free and fair elections throughout the country in 2009. He said Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had committed to holding the elections on time and invited international observers from his foundation, the Carter Center, to monitor the vote.

Carter said Bashir also told him this week that Sudan has committed $100 million to a fund for Darfur's reconstruction and that $200 million has been pledged by China, a diplomatic ally.