New UN chief again urges stay of Iraqi executions

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 7 (Reuters) UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, dogged by charges he was softening UN opposition to capital punishment, weighed in again on the issue, urging a stay of executions in Iraq.

Ban's chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, wrote the Iraqi authorities urging ''restraint by the government of Iraq in the execution of death sentences imposed by the Iraqi High Tribunal,'' Ban spokeswoman Michele Montas said in a statement yesterday.

A clandestine video of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's execution last Saturday provoked international criticism and further inflamed sectarian passions in Iraq.

Ban, a South Korean who took office as the United Nations' eighth secretary-general last Monday, created a flap on Tuesday by saying capital punishment was up to individual nations.

The statement triggered a wave of criticism from human rights groups, prompting his spokeswoman to add later that Ban believed in the need to work to abolish the death penalty, although he was aware nations differed on the issue.

Kofi Annan, Ban's predecessor, opposed the death penalty as a matter of policy, along with many other top UN officials and all members of the European Union.

Some 68 countries, including South Korea, retain the death penalty, although many have not executed anyone in recent years and Seoul is considering abolishing it.

Following the criticism, Ban urged Iraq on Wednesday to stay executions after Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, appealed to Iraq not to put to death two Iraqi officials who served under Saddam.

Saddam's hanging angered his fellow Sunni Arabs after video images showed Shi'ite officials taunting him on the gallows.

Saddam's execution had been rushed through four days after he lost an appeal.

Barzan al-Tikriti, Saddam's half-brother and former intelligence chief, and Awad al-Bander, a former chief judge, were found guilty along with Saddam of crimes against humanity in the killings of 148 Shi'ite men from Dujail in the 1980s.

The Iraqi government has not set a date for the executions, but speculation has mounted they could be put to death soon.

REUTERS SRS PM0547