Late Chief Government Whip Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, who was also the island's highways minister, told a media briefing in the Sinhalese language "I would say Holmes is completely a terrorist, a terrorist who supports terrorism. We consider people who support terrorists also terrorists,". Fernandopulle gave no proof to back up his assertion. To add insult to injury Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, the octogenarian prime minister said “The government of Sri Lanka, in no uncertain terms, rejects John Holmes' assertion that Sri Lanka is not safe for humanitarian workers," "The government cannot but feel that Sir John has contributed to those who seek to discredit the government and tarnish its international image."

It showed how arrogant were these thick skinned fellows in being racist, openly flouting international laws and norms to protect only the Sinhala race and Sinhala expansion like Hitler for his German Aryan race. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Noticeably, as revealed by political analysts, the Sinhalese have a misconception that as they would be a numerical majority population wise they would be holding the reigns of government eternally and that they could carry out what they wanted and whenever they wanted. Sinhalese academics and professors such as Professor Uyangoda, Dr Brian Senivirutne, Sarathchandra Gamlath, Dr Nimal Ranjith Devasiri, Professor ALH Gunawardene and western intellectuals John Richardson and David Selbourne had written in depth on this subject.

This power drunk attitude had driven them to unjustly trample the Tamil Minority in their Traditional Homeland (TH) of the North and East against all UN rules and conventions. Those countries that liked to have Sri-lanka on their side for political patronage therefore sided the Sinhalese even if the Sri-lankan government neglected the legitimate rights of the Tamil ethnic minorities. In short the Tamils have become an ineffective minority in Sri-Lanka. Consecuently the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (HR) adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948 could therefore be flouted daily in Sri-Lanka by the Sinhalese.

Council members are required to “uphold the highest standards” of human rights and “fully cooperate” with the council. Notwithstanding, having ignored UN request to allow the presence of a UN body in Sri-Lanka to monitor progress of HR procedures the chauvinist MR regime is attempting to try for a seat for the oncoming term at the UN. Sri Lanka’s worsening human rights record and failed promises for improvement undermine its claim for a place on the UN Human Rights Council.

Elections to the 47-member council, the United Nations’ leading human rights body, would be held in New York on May 21, 2008. Six candidates – Bahrain, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Timor Leste – would be running for four seats allocated to Asian states.

A coalition of more than 20 national and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) called Coalition for an Effective Human Rights Council had sent a letter to the UN requesting not to give a seat to Sri Lanka at least this time.

At this juncture we are reminded of a human rights activist Yang Jianli. Jianli is a expatriate refugee in USA. He is fighting against the Chinese government repression of human rights by organizing a 500 mile march in the USA called ‘GongMin’ in Chinese. This means citizen’s power. He said “I’m walking 500 miles as a free man-for citizen power”. He further stressed though the axiom ‘silence is golden’ is true but when it comes to human rights, silence is not golden.

Similarly all of those who are interested in HR must come out of their silence to stop the nasty Sri-Lankan regime getting a seat in the UN human rights body.

The coalition of NGOs cited further accusations against GSL “Sri Lankan Government forces have in the past two years been implicated in a wide range of serious abuses, including hundreds of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, widespread torture, and arbitrary detention. Sri Lanka obstructs the work of the council’s own appointed human rights experts, ignores their recommendations, publicly attacks senior UN officials who speak out on human rights issues, and has been unwilling to engage in serious discussions regarding UN human rights monitoring. The coalition noted in the letter that the armed separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have long been implicated in serious human rights abuses, but says this provides no justification for government abuses”.

In spite of this incriminating evidence of HR violations, to elect Sri Lanka to the UN would be a travesty, given its appalling rights record over the past two years. The North East Society On Human Rights (NESOHR) in its Human Rights Report for April 2008 gave the following latest depressing statistics. Civilians killed-34, disappeared-21, injured-28, sought protection at the Jaffna human rights commission-7, and arrested-131.

“We must become the change we wish to see in the world...” said Mahatma Gandhi, India’s famous politician cum saint who fought for India’s freedom from the British using Truth and Non-violence as his weapons. In keeping to this noble person’s ideals we must keep out racist, neo-Nazi and HR violators out of this respectable UN body. If elected to this august body the Sinhalese government will use its membership as a flag of approval of its deadly, gross HR violation by the world body.

As things as they are now the Tamil Diaspora are deeply saddened by the step-motherly treatment meted out by UN organisations to the Tamils in their Traditional Homeland (TH) of North and East (N&E), over Human Rights (HR) violations of the Sinhala government of Sri-Lanka. This is in spite of evidence that substantiate the accusations. Year 2007 had been a tortuous and horrendous year for the Tamils of N&E. Still for all no concrete action was taken by UN to put any sort of apparent coercive measures against the Government of Sri-Lanka (GSL).

The GSL violates all HR of the Tamils under the excuse that they are fighting LTTE terrorism. But who is to decide who is a terrorists? Most of the Tamil Diaspora believes that LTTE are freedom fighters. This can be evidenced by the all out positive response of the Diaspora to LTTE request to celebrate Heroes Day. UN Special Rapporteur, Kalliopi K. Koufaonce alleged to have said "The most problematic issue relating to terrorism and armed conflict is distinguishing terrorists from combatants”. From media reports it is apparent that GSL is the terrorist as it carries out genocide and acts of terrorism against the Tamils.

First to support this viewpoint is Human Rights Watch researcher Fred Abrahams and Sunila Abeyasekera of the INFORM –a human rights documentation centre in Colombo who told Chicago radio on 22 Saturday December that mainly Tamil men between 18-35 are being abducted or killed at a rate of 4 persons per day. Men are often taken in for questioning. Inhuman methods and torture are used in interrogations. Some are held in uncongenial detentions facilities. The government does not release their names, as they should under law. Under emergency Regulations now in force for last several years they could be held there without charge for long period. They revealed that these abductions are carried out in a way to terrorise the community-armed men in white vans arrive and take people in broad day light without any question asked load the victims in an authoritarian way.

Secondly, Freedom House that facilitates the expansion of freedom worldwide while issuing a statement on the situation in Sri Lanka on April 10 2007 at 3.46 GMT (Colombo Page News Desk Sri-Lanka) has recommended removing Sri Lanka from the list of eligible recipients for Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) assistance. FH in its report on ‘Freedom in the World’ by countries for 2007 had the following strictures on Sri Lanka.

“Conditions in the north and east dramatically deteriorated during the year, with the rising hostilities creating a humanitarian crisis and leading to a variety of human rights abuses. Largely, indiscriminate aerial shelling by the Sri Lankan military in Tiger-controlled territory, including attacks on a school and a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs), led to the death of dozens of people and the displacement of tens of thousands. People’s mobility as well as their commercial and social activities were curtailed by curfews, road closures, and security checkpoints. All parties to the conflict—the security forces, paramilitary groups, the LTTE, the Karuna faction, and other armed groups—engaged in a pattern of human rights violations, including civilian killings; abductions and disappearances; arrests and detentions; political assassinations; child conscription; and extortion. Young Tamil males were most at risk of harassment by all sides.

The third organization to contribute to this point of view is the Fund for Peace ( FfP) of 1701 K street, NW, 11th floor, Washington, D.C. 20006 in its third annual Failed States Index Scores for 2007 has included 177 countries in it. 32 countries are in the critical categories. The war torn Sri-Lanka is 25th.

Again the Economist did their part of the onerous duty of raising the alarm. The Economist of June 7 2007 published their reflection on the political situation and mind set now prevailing in Sinhalese areas. “In their view the Sinhalese are the sole owners of Sri Lanka, and all minorities are alien to it”. This mentality had driven the Sinhala Presidents to act lawlessly ignoring world opinion. The Economist goes on “The government of President Maninda Rajapakse also uses terrorism. More than 300 Tamil civilians, including many with family links to the Tigers, have been murdered in Jaffna alone. Armed members of a Tamil political party, the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), allegedly with close ties to army spies, have been accused of some of these killings”. The leader of the EPDP is Mr Douglas Devananda who is one of the 91 ministers in Rajapakse government. The magazine concludes “Tamils require an end to the discrimination that has virtually barred them from holding jobs in the army and police”.

Further, Sarath Kumara writing in the WSWS on 12 July 2007 under the heading “Sri-Lankan military intensifies offensive in the East” accused Rajapakse of causing aggression against the Tamil Homeland. “The government’s year of open military aggression has resulted in the deaths of at least 1,500 and the displacement of more than 250,000. Hundreds of people have been assassinated or “disappeared” by military-backed death squads”.

External vigilance is the watchword of democracy. Hence all who cherish law and order should cry out for the rejection of the Sri-Lankan out of the contest for a seat in UN. “There can be no peace without law” said late US president Dwight D. Eisenhower(1890-1969). To preserve law and order in the world realm law of the jungle as practiced in Sri-lanka should be stopped by rejecting Sri-Lanka in this contest. The world must unite. We must remember what Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) said “The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man or one party or one nation. It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world”. Research also shows that we tend to regret what we did not do. Therefore the world must act now to stop this failed state securing a place in the UN. All organisations and responsible citizens of the world should write to head of all countries to vote Sri-Lanka out of the UN as a warning to other HR violators that the world would not tolerate man’s inhumanity to man that makes countless thousands mourn.