Lanka-Pakistan battle for UNHRC seat

Sri Lanka and Pakistan may have to battle it out for one of the four Asian places in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) at the election to be held in New York on Wednesday, diplomatic sources say. Meanwhile, others say Sri Lanka and Pakistan's presence in the council would be at the expense of Bahrain and East Timor, two of the six contestants.

Sri Lanka, under pressure from human rights groups and some member governments, especially in the West, is determined to secure a place to prove to critics that it has sufficient support in the international community.

If it turns out to be a contest with Pakistan, as diplomats here predict, it would be an ironic twist to Sri Lanka's bilateral relations with that South-Asian country.

It was just two weeks ago that Sri Lanka made a strong case at the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) meeting in London for lifting the Commonwealth's six-month long suspension of Pakistan and re-admitting it to the organisation.

This was the final step in a sustained campaign by Sri Lanka over the past six months or more to stop the Commonwealth from taking punitive action against Islamabad for violating the 53-nation organisation's fundamental principles. Six Asian member-states of the UN -- Bahrain, East Timor, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea and Sri Lanka - are competing for the four seats allocated to Asia on the UNHRC.

Some diplomats here believe that Japan, South Korea and Bahrain would garner enough support at the council elections at the UN on Wednesday. They rule East Timor out of the equation, leaving Sri Lanka and Pakistan to compete for the remaining place, according to their calculations.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told me in London last week that he expected Sri Lanka to receive around 125 votes at least from the UN's 192 member states. Voting to select council members is by secret ballot.

Mr. Bogollagama was in London to attend the CMAG meeting, on his way back from New York where he made a strong case on Sri Lanka's behalf. He said he was confident that Sri Lanka would see it through at Wednesday's election.

International Trade Minister G. L. Peiris, who was also in London, accompanying President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said that according to his information Sri Lanka should make it through to the council. However, there is a strong lobby of human rights and other organisations that have launched a campaign against Sri Lanka for what they see as serious human rights violations. The latest person to add his voice to the anti-Sri Lanka lobby is Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa. The Nobel Peace laureate made a statement last week saying Colombo had no right to sit in the Council as it had violated the founding tenets of the UNHRC.

Diplomatic sources say that some western governments, especially in Europe, have also been privately lobbying against Sri Lanka. Although it is understood that some parties have committed to vote for Colombo on a quid pro quo basis, their votes cannot be ascertained because voting is by secret ballot.

Sri Lanka, a sitting member of the Council, completes its two-year term this month but is eligible for re-election if it secures a sufficient number of votes to be among the top four.