COLOMBO: Sri Lanka celebrated on Thursday its 68th year of independence from the British, making history with the singing of the national anthem in Tamil at the formal ceremony held in the capital.

Although irking ultra Sinhala nationalists, the country broke with a long-standing tradition of singing only the Sinhalese version of the national anthem at official functions after President Maithripala Sirisena permitted the singing of the Tamil version at the Independence Day celebrations held at the Galle Face Green.

The Sinhalese version was sung at the beginning of the function and “Sri Lanka Thaaye”, the Tamil version of the anthem written by Pulavar Nallathambi of Vaddukkotai in 1951, and officially endorsed by the then government of Ceylon, was sung at the end of the military parade by students.

President Sirisena took the decision to break the practice of singing the anthem only in Sinhalese, after the Cabinet Sub-Committee on National Co-existence unanimously recommended that the anthem should be sung also in Tamil in a bid to promote post-war ethnic reconciliation.

In his independence day speech, President Sirisena promised to work for post-war ethnic reconciliation but did not specify how he would go about it. He assured the Sinhalese majority that his government would protect the dignity of the Lankan military but also promised to implement the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution on human rights violations during the war with the Tamil Tigers.

Meanwhile, Tamils in the Northern district of Vavuniya held a black flag campaign on Thursday morning declaring that the Tamils in the Northern Province were unable to celebrate the Independence Day until the release of Tamil political prisoners.

The protest was launched by the Collective of the Families of Disappeared Persons and the citizens committee in the Vavuniya district who are demanding the release of all Tamil political prisoners who are held on charges of terrorism and being members of the Tamil Tigers.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2016