New UN chief calls for death-penalty moratorium

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today backed an initiative by Italy to push for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty.

The new UN chief, making his first trip overseas since taking office, appealed to the international community to “respect and comply with all … international humanitarian laws,” notably in putting an end to capital punishment.

“Life is very precious and every human being has a right to live with dignity, and life of human beings must be respected and protected,” Ban said after talks with EU officials in Brussels.

“There is some growing tendency to see some phase out of the death penalty and I encourage that trend,” he said.

The 27-nation European Union is also likely to back Italy’s call, which is to be discussed at the United Nations in the coming months.

The move is expected to face opposition from the United States and China, however, which still allow capital punishment.

Ban said he aimed to work closely with the EU on the issue and on other problems, notably to resolve the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region and other African crises as well as fighting climate change.

Ban in talks with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso also addressed peace prospects in the Middle East and the Paris donors conference for Lebanon, which both will attend on Thursday.

Barroso said the Commission would pledge £260m (€394m) in new aid to the embattled Lebanese government for reconstruction.

“Now it is time to move ahead and to tackle the political and economic reforms necessary,” Barroso said.

Ban said the crisis in Lebanon was “one of the most important, serious areas to which the international community needs to pay attention,” and added that another one of his priorities would be to help restore “political, social and economic stability” in Iraq.

Ban, speaking to reporters earlier after talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, said the EU and the United Nations were “are on the same page” in their views on key issues.

The future of Kosovo, Congo, the fight against terrorism and human rights issues were also discussed during the talks, officials said.

Ban was making his first visit to EU headquarters. He also met briefly with European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering.

He was also to hold talks with Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on the first leg of a seven-day trip to Europe and Africa.

EU foreign ministers have urged Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, to allow the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force in support of the 7,000-member African Union force that has failed to stop cease-fire violations in the country’s western Darfur region. Bashir has so far refused to allow in a UN force.

Ban is expected to push the issue with Bashir at an African Union summit in Ethiopia next week along with EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel.

Politicians at the European Parliament have called on the EU and the UN to put pressure on countries with closer ties to Sudan, like China and Russia, to sway Bashir to accept a larger peacekeeping force to try to end the conflict, which EU officials said has cost the lives of between 200,000 and 400,000 lives.

Ban met yesterday with China’s UN. ambassador to put pressure on Beijing to act.

China, which is one of Sudan’s biggest oil customers, has resisted UN attempts to force Khartoum to accept peacekeepers.

Ban has said he will make Africa and Darfur one of his top priorities during his tenure.

On Kosovo, Ban and Barroso were expected to discuss the EU’s possible role after the final status of the breakaway Serbian province is agreed to between Belgrade and Pristina.

Ban’s envoy, Martti Ahtisaari, is expected to present a plan on Kosovo to the ethnic Albanian and Serbian sides on February 2, after which some further negotiations are planned.

However, British officials said they did not expect a major re-negotiation of Ahtisaari’s proposal.

Ahtisaari plans to disclose recommendations on Kosovo’s future to Western governments and Russia on Friday.

After his visits to the EU and Nato, Ban is also to pay a visit to Belgium’s King Albert and Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt before leaving for Paris.

After Paris, Ban travels to Congo and Ethiopia before heading to the Netherlands to visit the UN war crimes tribunal.