UNITED NATIONS - UN chief Ban Ki-moon will seek to jumpstart the Darfur peace process during a week-long tour of Sudan, Chad and Libya beginning Monday, ahead of a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping operation in the strife-torn Sudanese region.
Ban, who since taking office in January has made the Darfur crisis his first priority, will seek to ensure that the so-called "hybrid" UN-AU force to be known as UNAMID can be deployed quickly and effectively to protect and assist beleaguered civilians.
The deployment of the 26,000-strong UNAMID -- which will be the world's largest peacekeeping operation -- was agreed by the UN Security Council July 31 after months of intense diplomacy to win over Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir. The full force is not expected to be on the ground before mid-2008.
"I want to know first hand the plight of those we seek to help," Ban told reporters here Tuesday. "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."
According to UN estimates, more than 200,000 people have died and more than two million have been displaced in Darfur as a result of the combined effect of war and famine since the conflict erupted more than four years ago. But Khartoum disputes the figures and says only 9,000 people died.
"Now we have a historic opportunity. We must seize it," Ban said as he outlined a three-pronged action plan focusing on peacekeeping, political negotiations as well as humanitarian aid and development.
Describing UNAMID as "one of the largest and most complex field operations the United Nations has ever undertaken, together with the African Union", the UN secretary general stressed that the operation could not succeed without Khartoum's cooperation.
He said he would seek Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir's "full support" during a meeting scheduled for next Thursday in Khartoum at the end of a three-day tour of Sudan.
On Wednesday, Ban was to travel to Al-Fasher, capital of North Darfur state, for a first-hand look at "the very difficult circumstances under which our forces will operate".
A day earlier, he was to visit Juba, capital of south Sudan where a 10,000-strong UN force has overseen an uneasy peace between government troops and ex-rebels since the end of a 21-year-old civil war.
Ahead of his Sudan trip, Ban slammed the recent escalation of violence in Darfur and urged all the parties to cease military actions.
But Khartoum rejected allegations that it is still involved in fighting in Darfur after it was accused of violating a UN arms embargo in the war-ravaged western region.
Sudan also recently expelled three Westerners, including two diplomats and the head of the international aid agency CARE.
After Sudan, Ban is to head to Chad next Friday and to Libya the following day.
In N'djamena, the Chadian capital, the secretary general is to confer with President Idriss Deby Itno, whose country has been reeling from a spillover of the fighting in neighboring Darfur.
At Ban's initiative, a UN police force backed by European Union troops is soon to be approved to protect camps of refugees and displaced people in eastern Chad and northern Central African Republic.
In Tripoli, Ban is to meet with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, whom he described as one of the key regional players in Darfur diplomacy.
A Western diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity said that Tripoli has been playing a crucial role in the delivery of humanitarian aid and the peace process in Darfur.
09/02/2007 01:41 GMT