The “Elders” — a group of senior yet spry statesmen who try to bring wisdom to bear on seemingly intractable conflicts — are considering missions to Lebanon, Iran, Sudan and possibly Iraq, their chairman, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said Tuesday in Denver.
The Elders also hope for change in the White House, said Tutu, 77, who endorsed Barack Obama as a leader who could remind the world of U.S. “greatness, not the meanness.”
Nobel Peace laureate Tutu and fellow South African Nelson Mandela convened the Elders last year. The dozen members include former U.S. President Carter, Bangladeshi micro-credit guru Muhammad Yunus, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Ireland’s former President Mary Robinson.
Recent group missions to Sudan, Kenya, the Middle East and Cyprus have helped forestall conflict through dialogue.
“We want to do everything we can. We’ll go where things are on the cusp and perhaps need a little more impetus, a little push,” Tutu said in an interview. “A great deal of what we may be able to accomplish will not be in headline-grabbing kinds of ways. We’ll work inconspicuously behind the scenes.”
Iran talks would focus on “the question of nuclear capabilities,” he said.
Former Algeria Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi is leading efforts in Lebanon. In Iraq — where “it’s going to be very difficult” for U.S. forces “to extricate themselves” — Tutu said, Elders must decide “whether our own intervention would make a difference.”
Around the United States, Tutu has been campaigning for passage of a global arms-trade treaty to curb commerce in guns and other light weapons that claim hundreds of thousands of lives a year. More than 130 nations for more than two years have worked for and back a proposed treaty, but U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday they’re not likely to support it in U.N. General Assembly voting next week.
“If we want a better world, let’s spend our resources not on instruments of destruction” but on clean water and health for children, Tutu said. “There’s no way we’re going to win the war on terrorism as long as there are conditions in the world that leave people desperate.”
Tutu arrived Tuesday morning in Denver, where, after marveling at the snow on the mountains, he was resting ahead of tonight’s speech at the Denver Center for Performing Arts Wells Fargo Theatre as part of the Insight Speakers Series.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper is scheduled to introduce Tutu.
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com
