Beirut: The UN Secretary General on Sunday 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.
In a keynote address at a conference on democracy in the Arab world, Ban Ki-moon said the revolutions of the Arab Spring show that 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 during the conference in Beirut.
Thousands of people have been killed in the Syrian government's crackdown on a 10-month-old uprising, which has turned increasingly violent in recent months.
The Syrian regime blames the revolt on terrorists and armed gangs. Arab League observers began work in Syria on December 27 to verify whether the government is abiding by its agreement to end the military crackdown on dissent, but the bloodshed has only increased. The UN says about 400 people have been killed in the last three weeks alone, on top of an earlier estimate of more than 5,000 killed since March.
Opposition and Army defectors meanwhile have increasingly been taking up arms to fight back against government forces.
Ban acknowledged challenges facing Arab states in the wake of the uprisings sweeping the Arab world, in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria.
"Democracy is not easy," he said. "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 the young.
"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!"
The UN chief also urged an end to "Israeli occupation of Arab and Palestinian territories... Settlements, new and old, are illegal. They work against the emergence of a viable Palestinian state."
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