KEBKABIYA, Sudan - Sudan's president has promised to pay $300 million in compensation to the country's war-torn Darfur region, tripling a previous pledge, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Wednesday.
Carter spoke during a tour of Darfur which was marred by a heated exchange between the former president and Sudanese security who prevented him visiting a Darfur tribal leader.
Carter told Reuters President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan had made the compensation pledge during talks with him and other members of a visiting group of elder statesmen, including South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in Khartoum on Monday.
"He promised us there would be $300 million in all coming to the Darfur region in compensation, $100 million coming from the government, and $200 million to be a loan from the Chinese," Carter said as he set off on a tour of the northern Darfur town of Kebkabiya with the elders party.
Sudan promised to pay $30 million in compensation to Darfur under the terms of a 2006 peace agreement signed with only one rebel group. Other rebel groups who refused to sign angrily rejected the offer as too low and remained unhappy when it was later raised to $100 million.
Soon after making the statement, Carter publicly clashed with a Sudanese security chief who had objected to the visit to a Darfur tribal chief.
"No you can't go. It's not on the programme," Kebkabiya security chief Omar Sheikh told Carter in a raised voice.
Carter angrily replied: "I don't think you have the authority to do so. We are going to go anyway. I'll tell President (Omar Hassan al-) Bashir."
Carter and rights campaigner Graca Machel were due to meet leaders of the displaced population in Kebkabiya on Wednesday but only three came to meet them.
