Despite
Sri Lanka
Harassment,
Tamils Win,
Ban Withholds
Report,
Rajapaksa
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
September 22
-- While Sri
Lanka's
Mahinda
Rajapaksa
prepared
to speak
Tuesday to the
UN General
Assembly and
presumably
afterward
meet with Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon, who
has for more
than a
month withheld
a report on UN
inaction as
40,000
civilians were
killed in 2009,
the northern
provincial
elections cast
both in a
different
light.
Despite
harassment
and
militarization,
the Tamil
National
Alliance won
28 or
38 seats in
Jaffna,
Kilinochchi,
Mannar,
Vavunia and
Mullaitivu
districts.
They even won
in the
government-backing
enclave of
Kaits.
This
despite
harassment
such as this,
reported by
the Center for
Monitoring
Election
Violence:
"Members
of
the public in
Karainagar
alleged that
from 7.15am
onwards, in
areas close to
polling
station No.4
of J/
Karainagar
Yarlton
College
(Hall no. 1) ;
No.5 of J/
Karainagar
Yarlton
College
(Junior
Division –
Hall No.2 ) ;
No.6 of J/
Karainagar
Yarlton
College
(Hall No.2)
and Polling
Station No.7
of
J/Karainagar
Yarlton
College
(Hall No.3) in
the Jaffna
District, men
in plain
clothes
wearing
sarongs whom
they suspected
to be Military
Intelligence
were
preventing the
public from
entering the
polling
stations."
"At
9.04
am two persons
had come to
polling
station No. 9
Sinnapoovarasankulam
G. T. M.
School in the
Vavuniya
District on a
motorcycle
bearing the
number NP HS
7187 and been
standing in
front
of the station
for a long
period of
time. A group
of youth at
the
polling
station
reported to
the CMEV
monitor who
was at the
site that
they had gone
to the polling
station to
cast their
vote but
recognised the
two persons as
army soldiers
and therefore
had not
voted. The
youth claimed
that the two
men had been
there for over
two
hours and that
many voters
had come to
the polling
station but
had
turned back
without
casting their
vote."
So
where IS Ban
Ki-moon's
report on the
UN's inaction
in 2009? In
early
August Inner
City Press was
told that Ban
would have
something to
say
about it in
September. On
September
20, Inner
City Press asked
Ban's
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky:
Inner
City
Press: in
early August,
you’d said
that this
report to the
Secretary-General
about the UN’s
action and
inaction in
Sri Lanka
in 2009 that
he might have
something to
say on it this
month. I
understand, we
are now in the
middle of the
month, but it
is coming
up to a pretty
busy week,
when do you
anticipate…?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Well, you are
very observant
to note that
it is the
twentieth of
September, and
therefore,
there are a
few days to
go. I
would simply
say: stay
tuned.
Inner
City
Press: Is
there a
bilateral plan
with President
[Mahinda]
Rajapaksa?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
Stay tuned.
Okay
- we're tuned.
We have been
for some time.
Watch this
site.
, 
