UNITED NATIONS, April 2 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wants sanctions against Sudan over the Darfur region to be held off in order to have more time to develop dialogue.
Ban told reporters on his return to New York Monday from an 11-day tour of the Middle East that some patience was needed in dealing with the situation.
Asked about sanctions against Khartoum for its truculence in following U.N. Security Council resolutions and allowing the world organization's peacekeepers to aid African Union peacekeepers, he said, "Before we talk about sanctions, let me have some more political space to deal with this dialogue with them."
The secretary-general said after more than three hours of talks with Sudan President Ahmad al-Bashir last week on the sidelines of the League of Arab States summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, he received a promise from Bashir to allow the United Nations to help AU peacekeepers, five of whom were killed in an attack in Darfur over the weekend.
"I am not aware of who was behind it, but I would like to strongly deplore such killings against peacekeepers in Africa," Ban said. "That really illustrates the necessity and urgency of dispatching hybrid peacekeepers to Darfur."
As for the United Nations' next step regarding Darfur, he said, "I would hope that I would first of all be able to engage in technical-level consultation; at the same time the political dialogue process should continue. We have achieved some improvement and results through this political dialogue."
Sudan had been widely criticized by humanitarian workers for dragging its feet in allowing them access to victims of the 4-year-old Darfur conflict, which has claimed more than 200,000 lives and displaced more than 2 million people.
