|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Jimmy Carter: 'I'm very grateful and honored'
Editor's Note: CNN Access is a regular feature on CNN.com providing interviews with newsmakers from around the world.
OSLO, Norway (CNN) -- More than 20 years after leaving the White House, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter Friday was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. "The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2002 to Jimmy Carter for his decades of untiring efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development," the official citation from the committee said. CNN's Carol Costello spoke with Carter on Thursday: COSTELLO: Were you up? Were you listening? CARTER: Well, I had a call about 4:30 from the Nobel committee and they asked me to call them back to make sure it was the right one. So I wasn't, I get up at five o'clock in the morning anyway, so I wouldn't, I didn't object this morning to get up a half an hour early. COSTELLO: Oh, I bet not. I bet not. So when they called you on the phone, what went through your mind? CARTER: Well, obviously I'm very grateful to the Nobel Committee for choosing me. I think they've announced very clearly that the work of the Carter Center has been a wonderful contribution to the world for the last 20 years, which involves a lot of people who, you know, are in the organization. And I don't think there's any doubt that the Nobel Prize itself, you know, encourages people to think about peace and human rights. So I'm very grateful and honored by this. COSTELLO: We just talked to Alan Lichtman, who is a presidential scholar. He says you have long been overlooked for this award. Do you feel that way? CARTER: Well, you know, the only time I thought about it was in, when we negotiated the Camp David Accords, when [former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem] Begin and [former Egyptian President Anwar] Sadat won. But the committee announced later that I had not been nominated and therefore couldn't share in the prize. But that's been a long time ago and a lot of very worthy people have gotten the prize since then. COSTELLO: Oh, and you have been very busy since then. What do you think your biggest achievement is to date? CARTER: Well, there have been a few specific things. One was, you know, going to North Korea and other one was maybe going to Haiti. But I think the most significant has been the work of the Carter Center the last 20 years, where we've never stopped attempting to bring peace to people, to bring freedom and democracy, to promote human rights. And although this is not very highly publicized in the United States, in the poorest countries in the world, the work of the Carter Center is known quite widely. So I think that's the main contribution. COSTELLO: The Carter Center has done quite a lot to fight disease worldwide. Can you tell us a little bit about that? CARTER: Well, we have programs in 65 different nations, 35 of which are in Africa. And these are the poorest and most destitute and forgotten people in the world and that's where the Carter Center does its work. And we deal with diseases that quite often have been totally forgotten in this country, things like Guinea worm, river blindness, trachoma, elephantiasis, histosomiasis. And we are actually in the villages and, you know, placing medicine in the mouths of people and teaching them how to correct their own health problems. So that's what we've been doing for the last 20 years. COSTELLO: You know, President Carter, so many people love you for the work you've been doing and admire you. You know, after your presidency, you could have just retired and enjoyed life, but instead you travel worldwide constantly. What drives you? CARTER: Well, you know, it's not a driven thing. When I left the White House I was a fairly young man and I realized I maybe would have 25 more years of active life. So we capitalized on the influence that I had as the former president of the greatest nation in the world and decided to fill vacuums. We don't duplicate what other people do. We try to go and deal with problems and issues that no one else is working on. So this has put us in some very interesting places. So... COSTELLO: The great country you mentioned, sir, is in great turmoil right now. I wanted to ask you a little bit about President Bush's policies on Iraq and what you thought about that as a man of peace. CARTER: Well, I don't want to comment specifically on President Bush's policy. But I do think that in every way, before we go into a war of any kind, we should exhaust all other alternatives, including negotiation, mediation or, if that's not possible in the case of Iraq, then working through the United Nations. And to bypass the United Nations and to forgo the cooperation of other nations in the world in dealing with a threat from Iraq, we should certainly make sure that we have as many nations as possible supporting us. COSTELLO: Well, you know, there is a sentiment that the United Nations can't do anything about finding any alleged weapons of mass destruction inside Iraq. It's tried before. It hasn't been successful. Do you think it can be successful this time and pass a very tough resolution? CARTER: I think this morning I don't want to comment on that. COSTELLO: Do you think that [Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein should be overthrown? CARTER: I think this morning I don't want to comment on that. I have commented earlier and I will comment in the future. But I think this particular day I'm going to just talk about peace and human rights and the alleviation of suffering and the promotion of freedom. That's the way I feel today. COSTELLO: Do you wish you were in the fray, though, in this, at this time in history when so much is going on in this country? CARTER: Well, you have to remember that through the Carter Center's work I'm in the fray every day. But we're dealing with different issues that are very important to people, but quite often not, you know, very highly publicized. COSTELLO: All right, Jimmy Carter, congratulations and thank you for joining "Daybreak" this morning.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
