DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania — President Obama arrived on Monday in Dar es Salaam on the final leg of a three-nation tour of Africa partially overshadowed by worries over the health of former president Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Tens of thousands of Tanzanians offered President Obama a tumultuous welcome, lining the streets leading into the Indian Ocean port city for miles. Mr. Obama left Cape Town for the four-hour flight to Tanzania after spending part of Sunday with his family visiting Robben Island, the notorious apartheid-era prison where Mr. Mandela, now 94, spent 18 of his 27 years of imprisonment by the former white authorities. In a visitor’s book in a prison courtyard, Mr. Obama wrote that his family was “humbled to stand where men of such courage faced down injustice and refused to yield.” “The world is grateful for the heroes of Robben Island,” he added, “who remind us that no shackles or cells can match the strength of the human spirit.” During Mr. Obama’s three-day visit, the South African authorities, limiting information about Mr. Mandela’s condition, did not update their assessment from late last week that Mr. Mandela’s condition was “critical” but stable in a hospital in Pretoria where he was taken with a recurrent lung infection on June 8. Mr. Obama began his African journey last week in Senegal before flying on to South Africa. He is to meet in Tanzania with President Jakaya Kikwete, but much speculation about his stay in Dar es Salaam relates to whether he will meet his predecessor, President George W. Bush, who will be there coincidentally at the same time, news reports said. Mr. Bush is visiting Dar es Salaam for a conference on African women organized by the George W. Bush Institute. Tanzania has a reputation abroad as an island of stability in the often- chaotic region of East Africa. The country has been rewarded with praise and money from international donors, including the United States, which last year gave the country more than $480 million. But human rights groups and the largest opposition party say episodes of intimidation and suppression of political opponents are growing. “The international community believes there is peace in Tanzania,” said Willibrod Slaa, the secretary general of the opposition party, Chadema. “There is fear, not peace.” While in Dar es Salaam, news reports said, Mr. Obama plans to discuss increased trade with East Africa and to visit a memorial to those who died in the bombing of the American Embassy there in August 1998, on the same day another explosion wrecked the American Embassy in neighboring Kenya in a coordinated attack. He is to return to Washington on Tuesday. Desire inc
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 14:37:53 +0000
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