Kartoum, Sudan Sept. 3rd. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon began a weeklong Africa trip devoted to Darfur by pleading with Sudan on Monday to ensure the human rights of its citizens. Mr. Ban also hinted that he would show more understanding toward the country’s much-criticized leadership. "I have never put much stock in grand rhetoric, dreams of the future, ‘visions’ that promise more than can be delivered," he said, addressing an invited gathering at Khartoum’s palatial Friendship Hall. "I am a realist, a man of action," he said. "I believe in results." Following his speech, he held a private meeting with Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Mr. Bashir has been shunned by many national leaders for his repeated denials of human rights abuses under his government. Mr. Ban told the audience that he was here to help end the violence in Darfur with a plan that combines a large force of peacekeepers with negotiations toward a political settlement between rebel militias and the government. "There must be a peace to keep," Mr. Ban said. "Peacekeeping must be accompanied by a political solution."Last month, the Security Council authorized a joint United Nations force of 20,000 soldiers and 6,000 civilian police officers to be sent to Darfur to protect civilians from the wave of killings, rapes and pillaging that has cost more than 200,000 lives and left more than two million villagers homeless. The joint force will be the world’s largest peacekeeping operation and cost more than $2 billion a year. United Nations officials hope to begin deployment in October and complete it by the beginning of 2008. Mr. Ban said he would extend an invitation to the eight major rebel groups involved in the fighting in Darfur for a "full-fledged peace conference" this fall. The groups met last month in Arusha, Tanzania, and came up with a framework for sharing power and resources that the United Nations says lays a basis for talks with the government. "There has to be a political will inside the government of Sudan to move toward negotiations, and we think that there is such a political will," said an official traveling with the secretary general. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid upstaging Mr. Ban, added, "I never use the word ‘optimistic’ about Sudan as a rule, but at least there are some positive trends here." He listed them as the unified support of the Security Council, the cooperation of neighboring countries like Chad, Eritrea, Egypt and Libya, and the "express will" of Sudan to participate in negotiations.
Mr. Ban is concluding his visit to Sudan this weekend before heading to Chad and Libya to enlist their continuing support in trying to end the Darfur crisis. In his talk, Mr. Ban coupled his offer of United Nations cooperation with an appeal to the audience, supporters of the Sudanese government, to recognize Sudan’s own responsibilities. "We have only to look around us to see how far Sudan has to go in upholding human rights," he said. Mr. Bashir had long resisted the entry of United Nations peacekeepers in Darfur, but this summer bowed to international pressure and agreed to the joint force. United Nations officials said they were placing hopes for progress in Darfur on the working relationship they believed has developed between Mr. Ban and the Sudanese president. The men have held three face-to-face meetings and a number of phone conversations since Mr. Ban became secretary general in January. "Bashir knows that the secretary general will be frank, but trusts him not to go parading around afterward saying, ‘I told him a thing or two,’" said another United Nations official traveling with Mr. Ban. "I won’t go so far as to say the talks are friendly, but the S.G. feels that he can talk in a very forceful way without derailing things," he said. Many countries have been less trusting of Mr. Bashir, who has a record of going back on his word. Last week at the United Nations, Britain and France suggested that there should be new sanctions against the Sudanese government for the continuing violence in Darfur.
On taking office in January, Mr. Ban said Darfur would be his top international priority, and fulfilling that pledge has become a growing obligation as concerned countries and aid groups have increasingly looked to the United Nations to produce an outcome. While he seeks their support for the peace effort in Darfur, Mr. Ban faces pressure from the Sudanese to produce United Nations action on development, water scarcity and the war-ravaged environment of Darfur. His audience greeted him with polite applause on Monday. Yet questioners focused not on Darfur but on the need for United Nations development assistance and the lack of a permanent seat on the Security Council for Africa. One asked if Mr. Ban could bring South Korean business success to Sudan. Mr. Ban responded by saying he found the give-and-take "much more lively than in the General Assembly."
By Warren Hoge
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