New UN chief pledges attention to Darfur, N Korea

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 2 (Reuters) U N Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon started his first day on the job today by promising immediate attention to the crisis in Darfur but backing off the usual U.N.

opposition to capital punishment.

Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister succeeding Kofi Annan of Ghana, was greeted by a U N honor guard and then went to a U N meditation chapel to honor fallen peacekeepers.

He spoke to reporters afterward and, after making few public comments during the transition, pledged openness toward the press.

Asked about the execution of Saddam Hussein, Ban, 62, said the former Iraqi leader was responsible ''for committing heinous crimes and unspeakable atrocities against the Iraqi people and we should never forget the victims of these crimes.'' But he said ''the issue of capital punishment is for each and every member state to decide'' in conformity with international law.

At the same time his special representative in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi released a statement saying that while the United Nations ''stands firmly against impunity,'' the world body ''remains opposed to capital punishment, even in the case of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.'' Ban said the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region was ''very high on my agenda'' and he would meet with his special envoy Jan Eliasson of Sweden on Wednesday morning and had already spoken by telephone with him.

He also said he would attend an African Union summit at the end of January in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and talk to Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir there.

''By engaging myself in the diplomatic process I hope that we will be able to resolve peacefully as soon as possible on these serious issues,'' Ban said.

Under Annan, the United Nations struggled to get a peacekeeping force in Sudan's western arid Darfur region, where violence has escalated, rapes have multiplied and more than 2.5 million people have been thrown out of their homes.

Bashir has put conditions on a U N peacekeeping force to bolster the under-financed 7,000 African Union troops, now in Darfur.

On North Korea, Ban said it was a priority on his agenda, especially since he had been deeply involved in Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions as South Korea's foreign minister.

''As secretary general I will first try to facilitate the smooth progress of six-party talks, and I will discuss this matter closely with the members of the six parties as well as (U N) Security Council members so that I can be able to do my own role,'' Ban said.

Negotiations aimed at persuading North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons ended without progress earlier this month during talks in Beijing among North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

But Ban was mindful of the daunting challenges and the limitations of the United Nations as well as his job.

''Not a single person, including the secretary general of the United Nations, not a single country -- however strong, powerful, resourceful, can address this,'' Ban said. ''We need to have some common efforts.'' Ban also pledged to encourage senior staff members to talk to the media as well as member states.'' ''We (the United Nations) have been underappreciated, sometimes unfairly criticized. So it is necessary for staff, senior staff particularly, to have continuous dialogue with the press,'' Ban said.

Ban then went to a meeting, closed to the press, to address United Nations staff, eager to hear his appointments. So far he has only announced his chief of staff, Indian Vijay Nambiar, who was a special adviser to former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and Michele Montas, an award-winning Haitian broadcaster, also a current U N staff members.

Reuters KR DB2237