カーター元米大統領の葬儀関連行事、故郷で始まる

【プレーンズＡＦＰ＝時事】１００歳で死去したジミー・カーター元米大統領の国葬に向けた一連の行事が４日、故郷のジョージア州プレーンズで始まった。（写真は、米ジョージア州アメリカスの医療センターでジミー・カーター元大統領のひつぎを運ぶ、同大統領の護衛を務めたシークレットサービスの職員）
　カーター氏が昨年１２月２９日に亡くなって以来、全米で半旗が掲げられている。
　同氏の大統領時代と引退後の護衛を務めた大統領警護隊（シークレットサービス）の職員が国旗で覆われたひつぎを霊きゅう車に運ぶと、車列を組んでプレーンズ市内を巡った。
　沿道には市民が集まり、最後の別れを告げた。車列がゆっくりと通り過ぎる中、多くの人が小さな米国旗を振ったり、写真を撮ったり、敬礼したりしていた。
　カーター氏が少年時代を過ごした家族のピーナツ農場で霊きゅう車が一時停車すると、「第３９代米大統領」をたたえて鐘が３９回鳴らされた。
　葬列は４日遅くに州都アトランタに到着。カーター氏が州知事になる前に上院議員を務めた州議会議事堂に立ち寄ると、黙とうがささげられた。
　そこからひつぎは、カーター氏が設立した非政府組織（ＮＧＯ）カーター・センターに護送された。ひつぎは７日午前６時まで安置され、一般人の弔問を受け入れる。
　遺体は７日に首都ワシントンに移され、軍の護衛の下、連邦議会議事堂に安置される。
　９日にワシントン大聖堂で国葬が行われた後、ひつぎはジョージア州に空輸され、カーター氏が日曜学校の教師を務めたプレーンズのバプテスト教会で私的な葬儀が行われる。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2025/01/06-16:50）

Mourners began paying their respects to Jimmy Carter on Saturday, as a carefully choreographed six-day farewell for the United States' longest-lived president got underway.
US flags have been flying at half-staff around the country since Carter died on December 29 at age 100 in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.
The procession got underway when US Secret Service agents from his current and former protective details carried his flag-draped casket to a hearse for a tour through Plains.
Crowds gathered along the roadside to say their goodbyes, with many waving small US flags, snapping photographs or saluting as the motorcade rolled slowly past.
The black hearse bearing his remains paused at Carter's boyhood family peanut farm, where a bell was rung 39 times in honor of America's 39th president. Staff of the National Park Service, which operates the farm, stood in somber, silent tribute.
He was a man that didn't walk around proud, he was an everyday normal person, William Brown, 71, told AFP while waiting for the motorcade in Plains. We're going to miss him.
The procession continued later Saturday to Atlanta for a brief stop and moment of silence at the Georgia State Capitol, where Carter served as a state senator before becoming governor.
From there his body was escorted to the Carter Presidential Center where he will lie in repose from 7:00 pm on Saturday (0000 GMT Sunday) to 6:00 am Tuesday to allow the public to pay their respects.
We will spend this week celebrating this incredible life and a life that I think we can all agree is as full and powerful as any life can be. As someone said, it's amazing what you can cram into 100 years, Carter?s grandson Jason said at the Carter Center ceremony.
He also paid tribute to staffers of the former president's foundation, which focuses on human rights, social justice and public health.
On Tuesday, Carter's remains will be flown from a military base in Georgia to Joint Base Andrews outside Washington on a US Air Force plane dubbed Special Air Mission 39.
A motorcade will then transport the body of the former commander-in-chief to the US Navy Memorial, several blocks from the White House.
Carter, who graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946, and served on submarines, will be transferred from a hearse to a horse-drawn caisson for a funeral procession to the US Capitol.
Military pallbearers will carry his flag-draped casket to the Capitol rotunda where his body will lie in state, surrounded by a guard of honor of service members, until 7:00 am Thursday.
Carter will be the 13th former US president to lie in state in the Capitol. Abraham Lincoln, assassinated in 1865, was the first.
- National funeral service -
A national funeral service is to be held Thursday at the National Cathedral, an Episcopal church in Washington that also hosted state funerals for former presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush.
Current President Joe Biden is to deliver the eulogy for his fellow Democrat, who served in the White House from 1977 to 1981.
All four living former presidents -- Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump -- are expected to attend.
Biden has declared Thursday a national day of mourning, with federal government offices to be closed for the day.
He has also ordered flags to half-staff for 30 days as is customary, which means that will be the case during Trump's January 20 inauguration.
That drew the ire of the president-elect who took to Truth Social to say no American can be happy about having flags raised only halfway when he takes office.
Following the cathedral service, Carter's remains will be flown back to Georgia for a private funeral service at the Baptist church in Plains where Carter taught Sunday school.
A final motorcade through his hometown will bring Carter to a burial plot at his residence.
US Navy jets will conduct a flyover in his honor before he is laid to rest alongside Rosalynn Carter, his wife of 77 years who died in 2023 at age 96.