UN chief says hybrid force not open for renegotiation

April 5, 2007 (UNITED NATIONS) — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Thursday a new round of talks with Sudanese officials. He further indicated that deployment of hybrid force would not be renegotiated.

A meeting is to be held Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to discuss the movement of a “heavy support package” — including 3,000 military police officers and support staff — into Darfur, Ban told reporters.

“The April 9 meeting is not intended to renegotiate the heavy support package proposal I made,” he said. “As the government of Sudan has made certain reservations on my proposals, this meeting will be used to clarify and for an exchange of views.”

The support package is meant to pave the way for an eventual 21,000 hybrid U.N.-African Union force. But that move has been held up by Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, who has asked Ban to reopen talks on the force.

Ban has made resolving the conflict in Sudan a top priority. Some 2 million people have been displaced, and 4 million rely on humanitarian assistance in Darfur, Ban told the League of Arab States March 28. The conflict has also left more than 200,000 people dead.

But despite the difficulty in getting Sudan to agree to U.N. intervention, Ban has asked that talks on sanctions be delayed.

“My position at this time is that, before we talk about sanctions, let me have some more political space to deal with this dialogue with them,” he told reporters Monday.

(UPI)