UN chief to Assad: Enough of 1-man rule
BEIRUT—THE UN chief has demanded that Syria’s president stop killing his own people and said the “old order” of one-man rule and family dynasties is over in the Middle East on a day when activists said 27 people died.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, delivering the keynote address on Sunday at a conference in Beirut on democracy in the Arab world, said the revolutions of the Arab Spring show people will no longer accept tyranny.
“Today, I say again to President (Bashar) Assad of Syria: Stop the violence. Stop killing your people,” Ban said.
Ban has been highly critical of the Assad government’s deadly crackdown on civilian protesters since the killings began—unlike the UN Security Council. That body is deeply divided. The US and European nations demand strong condemnation and possible sanctions against Assad, but Russia and China are opposed.
Ban’s speech on Sunday was his toughest against the continued survival of authoritarian regimes in the face of the growing international clamor for democracy.
Ban acknowledged challenges facing Arab states in the wake of the uprisings sweeping the Arab world, in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria.
“It is sometimes said that authoritarian regimes, whatever else their faults, at least kept a lid on sectarian conflict. This is a cruel canard,” Ban said in Beirut. “Yet it would be equally mistaken to assume that all of the new regimes now emerging will automatically uphold universal human rights,” he said.
“Democracy is not easy,” he added. “It takes time and effort to build. It does not come into being with one or two elections. Yet there is no going back.”
He encouraged Arab countries to usher in real reforms and dialogue, and to respect the role of women and youth.
“The old way, the old order, is crumbling,” Ban said. “One-man rule and the perpetuation of family dynasties, monopolies of wealth and power, the silencing of the media, the deprivation of fundamental freedoms that are the birthright of every man, woman and child on this planet—to all of this, the people say: Enough!”
Thousands of people have been killed in the government’s crackdown on a 10-month-old uprising, which has turned increasingly militarized in recent months with a growing risk of civil war.
Syria agreed last month to an Arab League plan that calls for a halt to the crackdown, the withdrawal of heavy weaponry, such as tanks, from cities, the release of all political prisoners, and allowing foreign journalists and human rights workers in. About 200 Arab League observers are working in Syria to verify whether the government is abiding by its agreement to end the military crackdown on dissent.
Observers visited the coastal city of Banias and the restive town of Maaret al-numan in northern Syria on Sunday, where they were met with thousands of anti-assad protesters chanting for his downfall.