By DPA
New York : UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has pushed a three-point action plan to end the ethnic conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region, starting with the deployment of a 26,000-strong peacekeeping operation.
Ban also said diplomacy and a political process involving the Sudanese government, combined with humanitarian and economic assistance to Darfur should contribute to ending the conflict that has killed over 300,000 people since 2003.
Countries have promised more military and civilian personnel than needed for the so-called hybrid force of the UN and African Union, Ban said. But he said the real needs are logistics and air transportation, which have not been promised by troop contributing countries.
Ban will be in Sudan Monday through Thursday and then travel on to Chad and Libya, two neighbouring countries that have a bearing on the conflict in Darfur. His trip comes amid preparations to deploy the joint peacekeeping operation.
“I want to go and see for myself the very difficult conditions under which our forces will operate,” Ban told the UN Security Council, which held a one-day debate on conflict prevention in Africa Tuesday.
“I also want to know first-hand the plight of those they (the UN peacekeepers) seek to help,” Ban said.
He said that the trip is not about achieving breakthroughs, but rather aimed at consolidating UN and African efforts to end the war between Khartoum-backed Arab militias and black African rebel forces. The two sides have signed a comprehensive peace agreement, but fighting has continued to break out between them.
Ban said he will impress on Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to cooperate and support the deployment of the hybrid force and to respect agreements to support international relief workers, which assist Darfur’s 4 million people who depend on aid to survive.
Khartoum has expelled in past days the leaders of three international relief organisations, including the US group Care.
He said political talks to end the ethnic conflict were “well on track”, following Khartoum’s agreement to attend negotiations with opposition leaders in Tanzania. Invitations were also to go out to some African countries and parties in the conflict so a full-fledged peace conference can take place “by the end of summer”.
“The international community needs to help organize these efforts, working with the government of Sudan as well as the host of international aid agencies and NGOs working so heroically on the ground,” Ban said, urging support for the three-point plan.