பாராளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர் சி.சிறீதரன் காரியாலயம் இராணுவ புலனாய்வாளர்களால் சுற்றிவளைப்பு

[ வெள்ளிக்கிழமை, 20 செப்ரெம்பர் 2013, 06:24.14 PM GMT ]

கிளிநொச்சியில் அமைந்துள்ள பாராளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர் சிவஞானம் சிறீதரன் அவர்களின் காரியாலயமாகிய அறிவகத்தை சுற்றி பதினைந்துக்கும் மேற்பட்ட இராணுவப்புலனாய்வாளர்கள் மற்றும் ஒட்டுக்குழுக்கள் அச்சுறுத்தும் வகையில் தற்பொழுது நிலைகொண்டுள்ளனர்.

குறிப்பிட்ட விடயம் குறித்து காவல்துறை அதிகரிக்கு தெரிவித்த நிலையிலும் அது சம்மந்தமாக எதுவித நடவடிக்கையும் குறித்த நேரத்தில் எடுக்கப்படவில்லை.

காரியாலயத்தில் பாராளுமன்ற உறுப்பினர் உட்பட பதினைந்துக்கு மேற்பட்டவர்கள் உள்ளனர்.

நாளை நடைபெறவுள்ள வடக்கு மாகாண சபைத் தேர்தலை மைய்யப்படுத்தி அவர்களை தாக்கும் நோக்குடன் இச்செயற்பாடு நடைபெற்றுக் கொண்டுள்ளதுடன் தொடர்ந்தும் பதற்ற நிலையே காணப்படுகின்றது.

இந்நிலையில் அங்கு தேர்தல் வன்முறைகளை கண்காணிப்பதற்கான நிலையத்தில் இருந்து கண்கானிப்பாளர்களான ஜோசப் ஸ்ராலின், றொக்சான் பெர்னாண்டோ, சுனில் ஜெயசேகர ஆகியோர் பாராளுமன்ற உறுப்பினரை சந்தித்து கொண்டு இருக்கின்றனர் என அறிவகத்தில் இருந்து தெரிவித்துள்ளனர்.

Military involvement shrouds Sri Lanka elections

After nearly three decades of conflict, Sri Lanka is set to hold elections in the island's former war zone. But experts doubt whether the poll, already marred by allegations of intimidation, will ease ethnic tensions.

Author Gabriel Dominguez, Srinivas Mazumdaru-20.09.2013

For 25 years Sri Lankan armed forces fought against militant separatists seeking to create an independent state for the Tamil-speaking minority in the north and the east of the island nation. Only in May 2009 did the central government in Colombo, led by the ethnic Sinhalese majority, manage to recapture the last area controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), putting an end to a civil war that had cost the lives of more than 80,000 people, according to United Nations estimates.

Military Involvement Shrouds Sri Lanka Elections by nelvely

Prison Massacre And The Alitalia Hijacker Sepala Ekanayake

By Rajan Hoole -September 21, 2013 

Rajan Hoole

Sri Lanka’s Black July – Part 28

He has been identified as an assassin in the second massacre by some of the surviving Tamil detainees and was the leading attacker to enter the Youthful Offenders Building. Independently, Major Sunil Peiris who led the rescue team confronted him carrying an object in his hand, and apparently thinking that the commandos had come to admire their work, told Peiris, “Sir, how is this job?” Repelled by what he saw, the officer delivered a blow while passing Ekanayake, which found him flat on the ground. The object concerned was a human head, about which more will be said below.

Read More

To be continued..

Part one - Sri Lanka’s Black July: Borella, 24th Evening

Part two - Sri Lanka’s Black July: What Really Happened At Kanatte?

Part three - Black July: ‘Api Suddha Kara’ – JR’s Failure To Declare Curfew

Part four - Sri Lanka’s Black July: The Cover Up

Part five -  30th July 1983: The Second Naxalite Plot

Part six  - Black July: The Testimony Of Lionel Bopage, Then General Secretary Of The JVP

Part seven - Black July: Thondaman & Muttetuwegama

Part eight - What Was Behind Tiger Friday – 29th July? -The Significance Of The Pettah

Part nine - Tamil Merchants In The Pettah – Post July 1983

Part ten –  Sri Lanka’s Black July: A Family’s Tragedy In Colombo

Part eleven -  Sri Lanka’s Black July: The Question Of Numbers

Part twelve –  Welikade Prison Massacres: The First Massacre: 25th July 1983

Part thirteen –  Welikade Prison Massacres: Testimonies Given At The Magistrate’s Inquest

Part fourteen -  Circumstances Leading To The Magistrate’s Inquest

Part fifteen - Welikade Prison: The Second Massacre: 27th July 1983

Part sixteen - Welikade Prison Massacres: Chief Jailor Observed Army Commandos Coming In

Part seventeen - Welikade Prison Massacres: Postscript

Part eighteen - July 1983: Planned By The State Or Spontaneous Mob Action?

Part nineteen - July 1983: Ranil Wickremasinghe Followed Cyril Mathew

Part twenty - Events Of 24th July – The Eve Of The Holocaust: Who Wanted A Military Funeral?

Part twenty one –  Events Of 24th July: What Were The Army’s Orders?

Part twenty two - Black July: Further Evidence Of Advance Planning

Part twenty three - Black July: The JSS Goon Squad Regime

Part twenty four - Institutional Implications Of The JSS And Black July

Part twenty five - Black July: Ranil Wickremesinghe, Gonalwela Sunil And The Kelaniya University

Part twenty six - Black July: Army Hathurusinghe Prevented Police From Assisting Prison Victims Under Attack

Part twenty seven - Black July: Justice Of Peace Gonawela Sunil And The Killings In Prison

*From Rajan Hoole‘s “Sri Lanka: Arrogance of Power  - Myth, Decadence and Murder”. Thanks to Rajan for giving us permission to republish. To be continued..

Centre for Monitoring Election Violence

Northern Provincial Council Election 2013 – Communiqué No 5

On 19^th September 2013, Kollankalati, Kankasanthurai Electorate, Northern Province

Dowload PDF of report Here. Download in Tamil.

Northern Provincial Council Election 2013 Communiquc3a9 No 05 by nelvely

Army attacked Anandhi - CaFFE national organizer

[ Friday, 20 September 2013, 01:25.30 PM GMT +05:30 ]

National organizer of CaFFE alleged military personals responsible for the attack carried out against the house TNA candidate Anandhi Sasidharan.

CaFFE national organizer visited the house if Anandhi this afternoon and investigate on this incident. Independent election monitor was also injured in this clash. Military intervention increased in the election activities. Military personals not permitted to intervene on election activities. Without fear people should cast their votes in this election, election monitor said.

Midnight Terror For Ananthi

By Dharisha Bastians -September 21, 2013 |

Dharisha Bastians

Historic elections in the Northern Province took a vicious turn 24 hours after campaigning ended, when the Jaffna home of the Tamil National Alliance candidate Ananthi Sasitharan was besieged and her supporters and a local election monitor assaulted early last morning.

Sasithran had noticed uniformed personnel outside her home out of her window and made several phone calls in quick succession. The first was to Police Emergency, 119 who she says told her they do not respond to such political calls. She then informed TNA MPs Marvai Senathirajah and Saravana Bhavan and also immediately informed the election monitors. The assailants had been looking for her, says Sasitharan and shouted threats from outside the house. “They slashed the tyres of my vehicle and then they moved out,” she recalls, back at her residence by mid morning yesterday.

Twin attacks on Sasitharan’s Chullipuram residence occurred at least 15 minutes apart, with the lapse between the two raids giving her supporters time to remove the candidate and her three daughters to safety. At least eight of Ananthi’s supporters were injured in the attacks. In an ironic twist, a PAFFREL polls monitor was also caught in the midnight violence that all the victims claim were perpetrated by men in military uniform men carrying assault weapons and heavy poles.

Kanakaratnam Sugash, lawyer for the Peoples’ Alliance for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), a local polls monitoring group, says he hopped on his motorbike shortly after midnight and rushed to Chullipuram, off Vaddukoddai to check on a complaint of violence he had received.  The complaint said 50 military personnel had surrounded a TNA candidate’s home. As he approached her residence, Sugash claims he noticed four Indian manufactured Mahendra jeeps speeding away from the house. Once inside the residence, the election monitor spoke with supporters of the candidate and asked for particulars. But what had started off as a routine monitoring job ended in nightmarish scenes when a second group of uniformed assailants surrounded the candidate’s home 15 minutes after the PAFFREL monitor had arrived.

Fifteen to 20 uniformed personnel entered the house, according to the PAFFREL monitor. Moments later, they were attacking Sasitharan’s supporters, Sugash says. “I knew there would be trouble the moment they surrounded the house, but the boys inside begged me not to leave them, they thought I would be some kind of protection against greater violence,” he tells Daily FT, seated at the Accident Ward of the Jaffna Teaching Hospital yesterday. He had not been spared either.Read More

Washington film fest features Sri Lanka massacre, No Fire Zone

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 September 2013, 11:59 GMT]
"Please join us for our Pulitzer Center film festival featuring the beautifully crafted and heart-wrenching film, “No Fire Zone.” Carefully evidenced and powerfully measured, "No Fire Zone" is a feature length film about the final months of the 26 year long Sri Lankan civil war told by the people who lived through it. It is a meticulous and chilling expose of some of the worst war crimes and crimes against humanity of recent times - told through the extraordinary personal stories of a small group of characters and also through some of the most dramatic and disturbing video evidence of the conflict ever recorded," a publicity note ussed by the Pulitzer Center Film festival organizers said. 

The film festival is labelled, "Global Crises, Human Stories" is a week-long celebration of reporting from around the world––featuring feature-length documentary films and shorts by award-winning Pulitzer Center journalists, such as "No Fire Zone": The true story of war crimes committed at the end of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009, the organizers said.

Directed by Callum Macrae, the film follows two highly influential documentaries on the same subject for the UK's Channel 4. The running time is 93 minutes, the leaflet said.

Tickets are on sale at http://www.westendcinema.com/, and the Friday, September 20, 5 pm; Monday, September 23, 3pm; and Wednesday, September 25, 7 pm.

Recently Malaysian government charged a Human Rights official for screening the film in Kuala lampur.

Wasps kill election officer

FRIDAY, 20 SEPTEMBER 2013 

A 45-year-old school teacher assigned for election duty at the Pudukulam Central College in Vavuniya was killed in a wasp attack while two other teachers were injured and admitted to Vavuniya Hospital, police said.

The victim identified as Christurajah was in charge of the polling station and a resident of Anna Nagar and taught at the Madinar Nagar College in Vavuniya.

UN High Commissioner's office charges Sri Lankan government ministers of misinformation campaign

Fri, Sep 20, 2013, 09:20 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.


Sept 20, Geneva: The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) today charged at least three ministers of the Sri Lankan government of engaging in a misinformation campaign against the High Commissioner.

Rupert Colville, the Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay issuing a press statement recalled the High Commissioner's statement at the end of her mission to Sri Lanka on 31 August in which she mentioned that at least three Government Ministers had joined in an "extraordinary array of distortion and abuse" during her visit to the country.

He said unfortunately the practice has continued with a report that, during her meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the High Commissioner has requested the removal of the statue of Sri Lanka's first Prime Minister from Colombo's Independence Square.

The OHCHR on 12 September has sent a formal complaint to the Sri Lankan Government regarding the widely reported comments attributed to the Secretary of Defence and requested an immediate retraction and public correction of the misinformation.

Since neither a retraction nor a correction have been forthcoming, the OHCHR said today it is making public what was said, and not said, about Independence Square during her visit.

The Spokesman categorically denied that Pillay ever uttered a single word about the statue of Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake at any point during her visit to Sri Lanka, let alone asked the President to remove it.
"This claim is without a shred of truth," Colville said.

There has been a further distortion concerning comments the High Commissioner made to the President concerning a flag in Independence Square, the Spokesman said.

The High Commissioner has discussed with the President her concerns with rising inter-communal tensions and incitement to violence on the basis of religion in Sri Lanka.

In this context, she has asked why the only flag flying, other than the national flag, in such a symbolic location was that of one religious community, and suggested it might be more inclusive to fly only the national flag which is a symbol that unites the nation, no matter who they are or what religion they adhere to.
"At no time did she request any flag to be removed," the Spokesman said.

"We consider it deeply regrettable that government officials and other commentators continue what appears to be a coordinated campaign of disinformation in an attempt to discredit the High Commissioner or to distract from the core messages of her visit," Colville said.


The High Commissioner will be updating the Human Rights Council on her visit and progress on accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka on 25 September.

Provinces poll today

September 21, 2013 

• Polling commences at 7 a.m. in North, North-Western and Central provinces
• Thousands of candidates in the fray
• Violence, abuse of state resources mar polls in north and south
• Army denies allegations of involvement in electoral process

By Dharisha Bastians
Three provinces will vote to elect provincial legislators today under the contentious 13th Amendment to the Constitution, even as the world turns its eyes on the historic ballot that will get underway in the country’s formerly embattled north.
The North Western and Central Provinces will begin voting at 7 a.m. where violent internecine battles for preferential votes have broken out within the ruling UPFA which is widely expected to cruise to comfortable victory in today’s election. 1517 candidates will vie for 58 seats on the Central Provincial Council while 52 seats are up for grab by 1362 candidates contesting in the North Western Province.
The ruling UPFA, UNP, JVP and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress will be the main parties contesting the North Western and Central Provinces. Both elections have seen violent clashes between candidates, an abuse of state resources by ruling party politicos and a flagrant disregard for election laws, polls monitors report.
In the Northern Provincial Council election that is the focus of today’s electoral battles, 38 seats are available on the provincial legislature that will be contested for between 906 candidates in the fray. The Tamil National Alliance, the ruling UPFA, the UNP and the SLMC will contest the Northern election.

Sporadic violence has marred the Northern poll, especially after the home of Tamil National Alliance candidate Ananthi Sasitharan was attacked in the early hours of yesterday and election monitors noted the continued involvement of the military in the election process. The Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) said it had received 18 complaints of unidentified men with “short hair that walk to marching rhythm” reported doing propaganda activities in Jaffna, Kilinochchi, and Mullaitivu. Another local monitoring body, PAFFREL said it had confirmed 12 complaints against the Army in the North. Late last night, tensions were reported by monitors in Mirusavil, Navakuli Junction, Kachai, Pallavi and Maravanpulavu in the Jaffna District due to heavy military presence. Military Spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya has vehemently denied the allegations of military involvement in pre-polls violence in the Northern Province. He said the allegations were an attempt to tarnish the good image of the military in the region.
Meanwhile the Centre for Monitoring Election violence expressed concerns about low voter turnout due to the distance between voters and their respective polling stations especially in the Mullaitivu District.

Sri Lankan Muslims And Power Of Vote: Some Reflections

By Rifai Naleemi -September 21, 2013

Dr. Rifai Naleemi

Provincial council elections are going to be held in some parts of Sri Lanka tomorrow. It is a democratic right of each and every citizen of this country to vote in this election so that people can have their representatives as they like. Muslims of Sri Lanka in this part of the country should vote to make their voices heard in this election. There have been some arguments about Muslim participation in this election. Unlike in the past Muslims are fade up this time to vote with any enthusiasm not because Muslims have no interest in politics rather recent anti-Muslim propaganda made to keep away from this government.  They feel that Muslim community is being systematically marginalised by this government wittingly or unwittingly. Some Muslims feel that they should totally boycott this election.  Some others feel that they should go to voting centres and invalidate their votes as a protest against this government. Some others feel that they should all vote for UNP candidates as a protest vote.

To this extend Muslims are frustrated in politics today. They do not know why and how Muslims are victimised in this communal violence and racism of BBS and its cohorts. Why do they target Muslims and what did innocent Muslims do to harm Buddhism in this country?  Without any reasons Muslims have been targeted by this BBS gangs in recent time. And yet, our politicians have done have done nothing to protect them and their religious places. So, what is the point in voting in this election and what is the point in voting for this government which has grossly failed to protect minority rights. This is the mindset of most of Muslims today in Sri Lanka. Voting or not voting that would not make any difference. This is the perception of some people about this election.

Yet, I strongly feel that Muslim should participate in this election with keen interest. They should exercise their democratic rights so that they could protect their basic rights. In Sri Lankan context as a second minority community we should cleverly use our vote bank. Individually some of us may vote or may not vote and yet, collectively as a community we should vote for candidates who look after communal interest with sincerity and honesty. He should be really supporting Muslim community and look after them and at least not harming them. This is the case when we are electing any candidate for any executive position or membership of parliament.

Read More

CAFFE INTERIM REPORT ON SRI LANKA NPC ELECTION 2013:SIGNS OF HOPE OVER THE BROKEN PALMYRAH TOWARDS A CIVIC ADMINISTRATION FOR THE NORTHERN PROVINCE

Northern Provincial Council Election 2013

 

It’s Historical

 

Establishing the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) will be a historical landmark in Sri Lankan political history. Residents of the North go to vote on September 21, 2013 after the end of 30 years of war and nearly four years of post war reconciliation attempts.  

 

Noting that any election held in the Northern Province has a significant impact on establishing a civic administration in the highly militarised region, Campaign for Free and Fair Elections (CaFFE) has been campaigning for a free and fair election in the North since the end of the war in May 2009. 

 

During the revision of the Voters’ Registry in 2012, CaFFE operatives played an important role in the revision process. They distributed applications and educated Northerners of the importance of voting. One of the main issues they noted while working in the Province was that a large number of eligible voters did not have valid documents of identification. Realising that this will cause a significant number of individuals to lose their voting franchise, CaFFE commenced an initiative to provide identity cards to the Northerners from August 2012 to February 2013. 

 

After the Northern Provincial Council elections were announced, CaFFE and its sister organisation Centre for Human Rights and Research (CHR) recommenced their mobile clinics to facilitate the issuing of identification documents with the assistance of the Department for Registration of Persons (DRP). Under this initiative CaFFE was able to facilitate applications for 36,514 National Identity Cards, Birth Certificates and other identification documents within 41 days. This programme was conducted with the Northern Provincial Council elections in mind. 

 

CaFFE officially commenced election monitoring in all five Districts in the Northern Province July 25, 2013 and this Report is based on what CaFFE observers have reported from that date until September 15, 2013.  CaFFE is the only election monitoring body that has coordination centres in every District in the North. In addition, it utilised the facilities and infrastructure of CHR, to help monitor the election. Detailed information of its activities and the incidents referred to in this Report can be found at http://www.caffesrilanka.org/ and http://www.chrsrilanka.com/. Some of the featured stories on the election were also published on http://lankafreedom.com/, a Rights based news website. 

 

As a responsible election monitoring organisation with a reputation for credibility CaFFE has only included complaints that could be verified. It has not included anonymous tips or statements made by individuals without any evidence. These are incidents investigated by 28 long-term observers and 43 field staff members on the ground who are independent and impartial. The information was backed by CHR’s ‘civil society network,’ the largest umbrella organisation for civil society organisations in the Province.                                                    more..>

Ananthi Elilan Attack: Perpetrators Involved Should Be Brought To Justice Swiftly – US

September 20, 2013 

The U.S. Embassy Colombo notes reports of an attack on the residence of an electoral candidate, supporters, and members of a domestic elections monitoring NGO during the evening of September 19.

US Ambassador Michele Sison

Issuing a statement the Embassy expresses concern regarding the attack, especially in the lead-up to the Provincial Council elections that will take place in Sri Lanka on September 21.

“The attack should be transparently and independently investigated, and the perpetrators involved should be brought to justice swiftly.  We call on all parties to refrain from violence and observe a peaceful, open and transparent electoral process – one that is free, fair and credible and allows for the full expression of the voters to select democratically the representatives of their choice.” the Embassy said.

Related posts;

EPDP And The Army Jointly Attack Ananthi Elilan At Midnight

TNA Candidate Wife Of Former LTTE Elilan’s Vehicle Attacked In Jaffna

Upcoming elections in Sri Lanka an opportunity for reconciliation – UN chief

A polling area in the the north of Sri Lanka when local elections were held in July 2010. Photo: IRIN

19 September 2013 – The forthcoming provincial elections in Sri Lanka are an important opportunity for reconciliation in the country, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling on all parties to take part in the electoral process in a peaceful manner.

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, Mr. Ban described the elections as a way to “foster political reconciliation and to build confidence between Sri Lankans after many years of conflict.”

Sri Lankan Government forces declared victory over the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May 2009, after a conflict that had raged on and off for nearly three decades and killed thousands of people. The country is still recovering from the protracted war.

Mr. Ban welcomed the provincial elections, which are scheduled for 21 September, particularly in the Northern Province, which has not had provincial elections since 1987.

He also called on all parties “to participate peacefully in the elections and to work together in the period following the elections to address the national and post-war agenda constructively and collaboratively.”

UN rights chief accuses SL of slander campaign FRIDAY, 20 SEPTEMBER 2013  The United Nations' rights Chief Navi Pillay, who is investigating allegations of war crimes by Sri Lanka, is the target of a smear campaign by Colombo, her office said Friday. Pillay's spokesman Rupert Colville said there had been no letup in the “extraordinary array of distortion and abuse” the UN high commissioner for human rights faced from Sri Lankan officials during a fact-finding mission there last month. “We consider it deeply regrettable that government officials and other commentators continue what appears to be a coordinated campaign of disinformation in an attempt to discredit the high commissioner or to distract from the core messages of her visit,” Colville told reporters. Pillay is probing allegations of war crimes by Sri Lanka, four years after the end of a Tamil separatist war that according to UN estimates claimed up to 100,000 lives between 1972 and 2009. A military offensive in 2009 crushed Tamil Tiger rebels who at the height of their power controlled one-third of Sri Lanka's territory, but rights campaigners say Sri Lankan forces killed thousands of civilians in the process. Pillay is a South Africa of Indian Tamil heritage, and during her visit she slammed “deeply offensive” Sri Lankan claims that she was a tool of the rebels. She called the Tamil Tigers a “murderous organisation” which should not be glorified by the world's Tamil diaspora. At the end of her mission on August 31, Pillay accused President Mahinda Rajapakse's regime of rising authoritarianism. Sri Lanka charged Pillay was meddling and overstepping her mandate. Colville said Pillay's office had on September 12 sent a formal complaint to the government over widely reported remarks by Defence Minister Gotabaya Rajapakse, who is also the president's brother. Rajapaksa has claimed that Pillay demanded Sri Lanka remove the statue of its first prime minister from Independence Square in Colombo. “This claim is without a shred of truth,” said Colville. Pillay is scheduled to present a report on her Sri Lanka mission to the UN Human Rights Council on September 25.(AFP)

Sri Lankan polls monitor, party workers, attacked in north

By Shihar Aneez

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka | Fri Sep 20, 2013 2:16pm IST

(Reuters) - A member of a Sri Lankan election monitoring group was attacked along with nine supporters of an ethnic minority Tamil political party by a group of gunmen who the victims said on Friday were clad in military uniform.

Sri Lanka's military denied any involvement in the attack at around midnight on Thursday, at an office of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) party outside the northern town of Jaffna.

Voters in northern Sri Lanka go to the polls on Saturday for a provincial election that threatens to stir up old animosity between the government and Tamils, four years after the military crushed separatist Tamil rebels and ended a 26-year war.

Most voters in the north are Tamils and many of them are bitter about what they see as virtual occupation of the region by the army which they accuse of rights abuses in the final, bloody stages of the war.

They are expected to vote overwhelmingly for the TNA, the former political proxy of the defeated rebels, in the election for 38 provincial councillors.

Kanakaratnam Sugash, the Jaffna district legal adviser for the People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) poll monitoring group said the attackers beat him with sticks and kicked him.

"I repeatedly explained that I am a lawyer for PAFFREL," Sugash told Reuters at a Jaffna hospital where he was admitted for treatment.

He said he was made to kneel and had a gun pointed at him: "They threatened to kill me if I revealed the incident."

The TNA supporters who also were beaten said the armed men told them that they wanted to kill their candidate, Ananthi Sasitharan, 42, the wife of a Tamil rebel leader who went missing after surrendering at the end of the war in May 2009.

Sasitharan told Reuters that she believed she was a target because she had raised human rights abuses by the government at a meeting with U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay, who visited Jaffna last month.

Military spokesman Ruwan Wanigasooriya rejected any suggestion the military was behind the attack and said the security forces were not involved in any violence.

Defeat for the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Saturday's vote would be largely symbolic but victory for the main Tamil party could reignite calls for autonomy.

The chief TNA candidate, C.V. Wigneswaran, said he was worried the army might attempt to block people from voting.

"They want to reduce the vote for us," he said.

Rajapaksa and his government have come under international pressure to bring to book those accused of war crimes committed at the end of the war and to boost efforts on reconciliation in the polarised country.

The government has rejected accusations of rights abuses and Rajapaksa in July ordered an inquiry into mass disappearances, mostly of Tamils, at the end of the war.

The U.S. embassy in Colombo said the Thursday night attack should be investigated and it called for a peaceful, free and fair vote.

(Additinal reporting by Ranga Sirilal in Colombo; Editing by Robert Birsel)