
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 28, 1990                   TAG: 9003280497
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/7   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CARTER BRIEFS BUSH ON MIDDLE EAST TRIP

For globe-trotting Jimmy Carter, his recent peace mission to the Middle East was a return to his "old stomping grounds."

Carter, who as president helped negotiate the Camp David accords between Egypt and Israel 11 years ago, briefed President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker on his private trip Tuesday.

Last month, Carter played a leading role in monitoring elections in Nicaragua, in which Sandinista President Daniel Ortega lost to U.S.-backed candidate Violeta de Chamorro. He has also tried to mediate truces between warring factions in Ethiopia and the Sudan.

"It was kind of like a vacation," Carter said of his trip to Israel, Egypt, Syria and Jordan. "My old stomping grounds."

Despite his disappointment that the turmoil still persists in the Middle East, Carter said he was optimistic about the prospects for peace.

Until there is an international peace conference, however, Carter predicted Palestinians will continue to agitate for their rights in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Carter, who has had a long interest in human rights, said he broached the issue with the Israelis, stressing in particular his opposition to the practice of holding Palestinians in detention for 12 months and separating mothers and children from their husbands and fathers.

by CNB