War over, fear still stalks polls in north Sri Lanka

By Shihar Aneez

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's northern cities hold local polls for the first time in many years on Saturday and though the civil war is over, fear and intimidation remain rife, poll monitors and opposition politicians say.

Voters in the separatist Tamil Tigers' self-declared capital of Kilinochchi, and in Mullaittivu where they were defeated by government forces in May 2009, will elect local councilors for the first time in 29 years.

The northern Jaffna district, under military control in the latter half of the 26-year civil war, will be holding its first local government election in 12 years.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, eager to gain support in the north, toured the area this week to launch development projects and promised more of them, in a war-ravaged region that remains firmly under military control.

"More money has been allocated to your province than the other provinces. There is no place for communal politics in Sri Lanka in the future and narrow-minded politics is unwanted in the future," Rajapaksa, who is from the Sinhalese ethnic majority, told a crowd in mostly rote Tamil this week.

Rajapaksa's government led the offensive to destroy the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), culminating in a final battle in May 2009 that ended the guerrilla group's campaign for a separate state for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority.

Since then Rajapaksa has promised to rebuild the north, shunning calls for political reconciliation in favor of economic development under what he calls "The Northern Spring."

But violence has persisted, and militias who fought for the government have used force to retain their influence. Election monitors have catalogued many violations, including the use of state resources for campaigning, and the use of violence.