Burning tires blocked roads out of insurgent strongholds yesterday as rebel cadres stopped their fellow minority Tamils from voting in a presidential election that has become a referendum on the country's stalled peace process.
In the Tamil heartland of northern Sri Lanka, supporters of the rebel Tamil Tigers hit one man in the head to keep him from voting. A bus driver who tried to run a roadblock didn't make it and was beaten.
Police officials reported that few, if any, Tamils were making it out of rebel territory to vote.
PHOTO: AP
The Tamils, who make up just under 20 percent of Sri Lanka's 19 million people, are potential kingmakers in the tightly contested election that has pitted Sri Lanka's hardline prime minister against its dovish opposition leader.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam took up arms in 1983 over discrimination against Tamils, most of whom are Hindu, by the predominantly Buddhist Sinhalese majority. They demand a homeland for the Tamils. Nearly 66,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Peace talks to build on a 2002 ceasefire are stalled, and Sri Lankans now refer to the regular shootings and bombings in and around Tiger strongholds in the north and east as the "shadow war."
While the Tigers have made no overt statements on whether Tamils should vote, pro-rebel student groups that often speak for the insurgents have urged a Tamil boycott, a call that at least some will heed.
With no polling in rebel strongholds in northern and eastern Sri Lanka -- home to some 100,000 voters, almost all Tamils -- people were to be bused to government areas to cast ballots.
But in this village tucked between the dense forest and a network of lagoons that leads to the Indian Ocean, few, if any, Tamils had made it from rebel territory to the polling booths.
Burning tires, presumably set by the Tigers or their supporters, blocked the roads from rebel strongholds into the village.
Those who tried to go were stopped by rebel soldiers.
One of the troops insisted he was only "there to fight."
But "there are other people's organizations linked to us and they are the ones who take this position," said the man, who only gave the name Sakthi, referring to the blocked roads.
For potential voters, the message was clear.
"Burning tires are a signal that we should not go beyond this, we have known this over the years," said Perinban, 57, a Tamil farmer who only uses one name.
"If I had a chance to vote, I would have voted," he said.
The area's Senior Superintendent of Police, S. Tennakoon, said no votes had been cast by midday at polling stations set up for residents of Tiger areas.
A senior police official in the eastern port of Trincomalee and a top cop in northern Sri Lanka, T.M. Tennakoon, reported the same situation in their territories.
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