Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon arrived in
Khartoum on Monday to start an official visit in Sudan which has
been termed by the Sudanese government as a "historic."
UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon (2nd L) waves as he walks with Sudan's Foreign
Minister Lam Akol (2nd R) after arriving in Khartoum September 3,
2007.
During the five-day visit, the first for the UN chief in Sudan
since assuming office at the beginning of this year, Ban is set to
meet Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir, the two vice presidents and
other senior officials in the Sudanese government as well as
leaders of the oppositions parties.
The talks are expected to be focused on Darfur issues, where a
number of civilians have been killed and over one million displaced
since the conflict erupted in February, 2003 between the government
forces helped by pro-government militia and rebel movements seeking
a redistribution of wealth and power with the government.
Last week, Ban told a press conference in the UN headquarters
that "I want to create the foundations of a lasting peace and
security," adding that "my goal is to lock in the progress we have
made so far, to build on it so that this terrible trauma may one
day cease."
Meanwhile, the UN sources said that Ban Ki-moon will ask for a
quick implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1769, which
authorizes the deployment of 26,000-strong hybrid peacekeeping
force of the UN and the African Union (AU) in Darfur before the end
of this year.
Besides the talks in Khartoum, the UN chief is also scheduled to
pay a tour in southern Sudan and Darfur.
However, this was not the first visit for Ban ki-moon personally
in Sudan since he had visited his daughter who used to work for the
UNICEF in the African country.
Sirajaddin Hamid, Director of the Department of Peace and
Humanitarian Affairs at the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
described Ban's visit in Sudan as a "historic," noting that "the UN
chief will receive a special welcome from the Sudanese government
because of a big development of relations between the UN and Sudan
since this year."
Hamid disclosed that Ban Ki-moon's visit came in response to an
invitation of the Sudanese president during their meeting on the
sidelines of the latest UN general assembly in New York.
Earlier, Abdul al-Mahmoud Abdul al-Halim, the representative of
the Sudanese government in the UN, expected that during Ban's visit
the two sides would announce the date and place of the next round
of peace negotiations between the Sudanese government and the
Darfur rebel movements.
In August this year, under the sponsorship of the UN and the AU,
several Darfur rebel groups agreed at the end of their four-day
meetings in Arusha, Tanzania, to resume the peace talks with the
Sudanese government within three months without defining the date
and place of the next peace negotiations.
In addition to the Darfur peace negotiations, Abdul al-Halim
said Ban's talks in Sudan would also deal with the arrangements for
the deployment of the hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping forces in the
western Sudanese region according to Resolution 1769 adopted by the
UN Security Council on July 31, and the international contribution
in the reconstruction and development in Darfur.
Ban Ki-moon said that he would move forward a three-point action
plan in Darfur, noting that the first point of the plan was the
peace keeping and the second point was to push the peace
process.
"The third element in my action plan for Darfur involves
humanitarian aid and development. Any peace in Darfur must be built
on solutions that go to the root causes of the conflict," the UN
chief stressed.
During his one day visit in Darfur, the UN secretary general
will inspect Abushok, the biggest refugee camp on the outskirts of
Fashir, North Darfur state to get acquainted with the situations of
some 90 thousand displaced people living there. This will be the
first visit of a UN secretary general in a refugee camp in
Darfur.
(Xinhua News Agency September 4, 2007)
