Obama: Mandela \”courageous and profoundly good\”

WASHINGTON: America´s first black president Barack Obama Thursday mourned Nelson Mandela as a \”profoundly good\” man who \”took history in his hands and bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice.\”

Obama — who met the former South African president briefly only once in 2005, but was inspired to enter politics by the anti-apartheid hero´s example — paid a somber heartfelt tribute within 45 minutes of Mandela´s death being announced.

\”We will not likely see the like of Nelson Mandela again,\” Obama said in a televised statement, hailing his political hero for his \”fierce dignity and unbending will to sacrifice his own freedom for the freedom of others.\”

Obama said Mandela, in his journey from a \”prisoner to a president,\” transformed South Africa and \”moved all of us.\”

\”He achieved more than could be expected of any man.\” \”Today he´s gone home and we´ve lost one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this Earth. \”He no longer belongs to us; he belongs to the ages.\” (AFP)