COLOMBO: Sri Lankan schoolchildren sang their national anthem in the island’s minority Tamil language at Independence Day celebrations for the first time in 67 years Thursday, in a highly symbolic gesture after decades of civil war.
Every year since 1949, the first anniversary of independence from Britain, the anthem Sri Lanka Matha (“Mother Sri Lanka”) had been sung at the festivities only in Sinhala, spoken by the island’s ethnic Sinhalese majority.
On Thursday pupils sang in both languages at a televised military parade that also saw army tanks, gunships and fighter jets travel down Colombo’s seafront promenade in front of thousands of flag-waving spectators.
Reconciliation-minded president Maithripala Siresena marked the island republic’s 68th independence anniversary with a call for unity after the 37-year war with Tamil separatists that claimed 100,000 lives.
In a speech Sirisena reiterated his pledge to allow a UN-mandated investigation into wartime human rights abuses following a UN Human Rights Council resolution late last year.
“By implementing the resolution we safeguard the dignity of the nation, the people and the armed forces ... and it helps us to be accepted as a respected member of the international community,” the president said.
Sirisena also used the speech to accuse political opponents of giving a “misleading interpretation” to the resolution, which he says is vital for ensuring accountability.
Sirisena’s new government has pledged to set up special war crimes courts this year to investigate allegations that troops killed at least 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of the conflict that ended in 2009.
But opposition politicians, who deny war crimes were ever committed by a government-backed military, say the UN-mandated probe is intrusive and represents a threat to sovereignty.
UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussain is expected to travel to Sri Lanka in the coming days, with his council due to review the country’s progress in implementing the September resolution.
— AFP
