From: vigneswa@ecs.umass.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka
Subject: Why Ethiopia first?
Date: 9 Sep 92 16:10:25 GMT

	There are new students around.  Most of them are Americans and
there are few international students.  When I went to introduce myself
I recollected my first semester here, in the Land of Opportunities.  I
was asked where I was from.  For most of the people "Sri Lanka" was an
unknown spot in the  World Map. I  had to tell  them that once  upon a 
time we were Ceylon.  Ceylon Tea  could do for  some old  people (well,
senior citizens, to be politically correct).  For others I had to tell
that we are  situated just south to the  southern tip of the India.  I
was sure that few of them shook their heads to mean they got it (read:
somewhere in the world maybe....)

	Now I don't have  that problem.  Thanks to Mr Bill Clinton and
Mr Bush, and the presidential election TV coverage, most of the people 
know the name Sri Lanka (no, Shri Lanka, as pronounced by both).  Only
question they have now is; "Why we feed Ethiopia first then? Maybe Sri
Lanka will be next".

	Hmm....  UN would have double role then.  The following was in
the news.  Whole newsclip also follows.

>    Martin said the United Nations had failed to act  effectively
>on  "the  most  clear  and gross cases of human rights violations
>seen recently in Iraq and  Sri  Lanka.  The  U.N.  can  and  must
>respond more urgently to these situations."

Vicky:
UMass, Sep 09

+++++
AMNESTY URGES TOP U.N. POST TO MONITOR HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE

    By Caroline Smith
    AMSTERDAM, Sep 6, Reuter - Amnesty  International  on  Sunday
assailed the United Nations' slow response to human rights abuses
and urged it to appoint a  senior  official  with  the  power  to
remedy state-sanctioned violence against ordinary citizens.

    "We are far from satisfied with the United  Nations'  efforts
on  human  rights," Ian Martin, secretary-general of the interna-
tional human rights group, told reporters.

    "We believe there needs  to  be  someone  with  human  rights
responsibility mandated to act urgently where human rights viola-
tions occur, without having to wait for United Nations approval,"
he said.

    "The office should be led by a single individual with  suffi-
cient  authority, resources and personnel to become a focal point
for U.N. action and information on human rights," the group  said
in  a  declaration  after a three-day international conference on
political killings and disappearances.

    Martin said at present the United Nations could only  act  on
specific mandates from its Commission for Human Rights.

    The United Nations has from time to time appointed envoys  in
certain countries to report on government repression.

    Martin said the United Nations had failed to act  effectively
on  "the  most  clear  and gross cases of human rights violations
seen recently in Iraq and  Sri  Lanka.  The  U.N.  can  and  must
respond more urgently to these situations."

    Amnesty, which in 1991 said governments in more than 70 coun-
tries  had  tortured  or murdered their own citizens, plans a new
campaign next year to expose political killings  and  "disappear-
ances" arranged or sanctioned by governments.

    It said more than a million people worldwide  had  been  tor-
tured or murdered by their governments.

    "The numbers are so staggering that the significance  of  the
individual  life  is lost," Amnesty said. "Each of them was deli-
berately killed, tortured to death, or  singled  out  to  "disap-
pear'."

    Amnesty said it would formally request the new U.N. post at a
world conference on human rights in Vienna in June 1993.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.sri-lanka