Jimmy Carter Comes Face To Face With Darfur Mess

The 83-year-old Carter walked into this highly volatile pro-Sudanese government town to meet refugees too frightened to attend a scheduled meeting at a nearby compound. He was able to make it to a school where he met with one tribal representative and was preparing to go further into the town when Sudanese security officers stopped him.

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

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

U.N. officials told Carter's entourage 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 his Secret Service detail urged him to get into a car and leave.

"I'll tell President Bashir about this," Carter said, referring to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Carter later agreed to a compromise by which tribal representatives would be brought to him at another location later Wednesday. But the refugee delegates never showed up.

Carter really is clueless about the situation in Darfur. The Sudanese government had no intention of ever letting Carter see what is really going on there. Carter thinks that talking things through with the regime in Khartoum will fix matters?

That compromise really worked out well, don't you think? The refugee delegates never showed.

The Darfur genocide has killed hundreds of thousands of people, and more than 2 million have been displaced. New fighting among various militias, including the janjaweed that was responsible for much of the ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity are involved in the ongoing violence and human rights abuses. Carter thinks talking with these folks will solve matters.

All that the talking does is extend the time during which the militias can secure territory and eliminate rivals and displace those who live on the land in Darfur. The crisis will end when one side is eliminated.