Monday, September 17, 2007

Desmond Tutu to head peace mission by world leaders to Sudan

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) - A council of peacemaking world leaders and Nobel laureates launched by former president Nelson Mandela is taking up Darfur as its first mission, with a trip to Sudan planned later this month, the organization said Monday.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who chairs the group known as The Elders, will lead a delegation that will include former U.S. president Jimmy Carter; Mandela's wife Graca Machel, a long time campaigner for children's rights; and Lakhdar Brahimi, a former United Nations envoy to Iraq. Mandela will not be part of the mission.

"We want the suffering to end - and we hope to contribute to that," Tutu said in a statement.

More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.5 million have been displaced in four years of fighting between rebel groups and government-backed militias. Read more >>>>>>>>>>>

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