Ban Ki-moon said that the UN was failing in its duty toprotect Syria's civilians as he paid a landmark visit to Srebrenica, thescene of Europe's worst massacre since World War II. Ban, the first UN chief tovisit Srebrenica since blue helmet peacekeepers failed to prevent the killingof around 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in 1995, said it was essential theinternational community learned the lessons of history.
"We have to do all to protect civilians and to stopbloodshed particularly in Syria now, when we have learned the messageof Srebrenica," Ban said. "The international community must be unitednot to see any further bloodshed in Syria because I do not want tosee any of my successors after 20 years visiting Syria apologisingfor what we could have done now to protect the civiliansin Syria which we are not doing."
Ban was speaking after meeting survivors at the Potocaricemetery near Srebrenica, where more than 6,500 victims are buried. Themassacre took place after Bosnian Serbs brushed aside lightly armed Dutchpeacekeepers in a so-called UN "safe area" where thousands of Muslimsfrom surrounding villages had gathered for protection.
The episode caused huge damage to the reputation of the UN'speacekeeping operations, which were at the time headed by Kofi Annan -- Ban'spredecessor and the man now tasked by the UN and Arab League to bring peaceto Syria. Annan's peace plan has struggled to make any headway, and halfof a UN observer mission sent to supervise an April truce that never took holdwas pulled out of Syria on Wednesday.
Ban acknowledged that the United Nations had let the peopleof Srebrenica down, calling it perhaps the most difficult and the most painfulplace for him to visit as secretary-general.
"The international community failed to provide thenecessary protection to many people who were killed at the time, when theyneeded our support," he said. "There is no organisation which is moreresponsible for what happened in Srebrenica than the UN."
