Obama received $865 congratulatory gift from Kiir in 2011
April 26, 2013 (WASHINGTON) – US president Barack Obama accepted gifts valued at $865 from his South Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir congratulating him on his historic 2009 election win, a White House document has revealed.
The items included a congratulatory plaque in a wooden box, an ebony rhinoceros carving and a hand-etched bowl with an image of Africa and African animals.
They were received by the president in September 2011.
Details of the gifts were made public in an annual filing by the US state department’s protocol office.
The report provides an itemised account of the gifts received by federal government employees, including the president and his family, from foreign government sources in the 2011 calendar year. It also includes details of the recipient and the value of the gift.
While gifts received by employees of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are listed, the identity of the donor is withheld in accordance with the exception under the law which allows it if “the publication of such information could adversely affect United States intelligence sources or methods”.
Gift items received by Obama and his wife Michelle in 2011 ranged from traditional cultural items, books, artworks and sculptures to perfumes, jewellery, personalised accessories, sporting memorabilia and designer goods.
Among the items listed was a patterned Afghan rug gifted to Obama by Afghan president Hamid Karzai and valued at $1,200; a Louis Vuitton men’s bag embossed with ‘B.O.’ from French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy valued at $2,310 and a traditional Maori weapon carved from greenstone from New Zealand prime minister John Key and valued at $3,200.
Following US custom, US public officials seldom keep gifts from foreign leaders and are instead deposited with the US National Archives and Records Administration.
(ST)