UN/FILE: UN's Ban ki -moon to persuade Sudan on peacekeeping forces; remains optimistic on end of Gaza violence

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he will continue to persuade the Sudanese government to keep their commitment on the admittance of peacekeeping forces in Sudan. Ban also calls on international community to help facilitate the end of recent violence in Gaza. In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday (May 16), U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon gave his opinion on the latest developments on key international issues such as the need for more peacekeeping forces to quell the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. Sudan's government recently agreed to a "heavy support package" for Darfur, consisting of about 3,000 troops, but has not approved the hybrid force of more than 20,000 troops and police, which the U.N. authorized last August. Last month, U.S. President George W. Bush said he would hold off on imposing new sanctions against Sudan in order to give the United Nations more time to negotiate with Khartoum over accepting a hybrid U.N./African Union force in Darfur. Ban told Reuters that he was in on-going talks with President Bashir of Sudan about the nature of the hybrid forces and was hopeful of Sudan's acceptance of such a force. "There is an agreement between myself and President Bashir of Sudan that hybrid forces will be at the range of 20,000 and 24,000, how to generate this hybrid forces will be a question between the African Union, United Nations and Sudan, but the general understanding that priority will be given to AFrican forces," said Ban. He added that as far as the institutional structures are concerned for the hybrid forces, this is already agreed by Sudan and that as for the force generations, it is almost agreed. He emphasized that it was very important for the Sudanese government to keep its commitment to accepting hybrid forces and he would be in constant touch with them over this. Since 2003, more than 200,000 people have died in the conflict in Darfur, which flared when rebels took up arms against the government, accusing it of neglect. Aid groups estimate more than 2.5 million people have been displaced. On Gaza, where factional fighting since Friday (May 11) has killed at least 40 Palestinians, including 16 on Wednesday (May 16), Ban said he was greatly concerned about the violence and hoped that the rival factions in Gaza would stop fighting immediately. But Ban added he was not discouraged by the situation and said that he still had "guarded optimism" about the prospect of peace in the area. "There is some guarded optimism in this area. Therefore, whole international community should collectively help and exert concerted effort to help facilitate such movement," said Ban.

ITN Source | May 17, 2007

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