Ban, who on Friday arrived in Zagreb for his visit to Croatia on 20-22 July, told reporters that he was deeply disappointed with the failure of the Security Council to adopt a unanimous decision.
He said he was also deeply frustrated at the unprecedented violations of human rights in Syria, which he said must not be tolerated.
The Secretary-General also called on the entire international community, notably on the Security Council, to be unanimous and to use all means, as stipulated by the UN charter, to stop bloodshed in Syria.
Asked whether the situation in that Middle Eastern country resembled the developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina before the outbreak of the 1992-10995 war, Ban said that Syria was a unique case, but the common points were the violations of fundamental human rights.
You in the Balkans have experienced that, just as people in the Middle East and in Myanmar. Not only the Security Council and the United Nations, but also all of us are responsible for what is going on, the visiting UN Secretary-General told reporters in Zagreb.
Ban admitted that the UN and international community had failed to do what residents of Srebrenica expected of them when the Serb forces committed genocide against local Muslims in the summer of 1995 when that eastern Bosnian town was a UN safe haven.
During his tour of countries in the former Yugoslavia, the UN Secretary-General will also stop in Srebrenica, too.