Sri Lankan president presides over slimmed down Independence Day parade

Sri Lankan military personnel march during the country's 67th Independence Day celebrations in Colombo yesterday. It came as new president Maithripala Sirisena vowed to end Sri Lanka's pariah status by working with the UN and promised national reconciliation six years after the island's war against the Tamil minority ended.

In an address to the nation, Sirisena and his ministers also pledged never again to allow the "land to be traumatised by the shedding of blood of innocents".

In a major sign of rapprochement, the country's main minority political party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), attended the national day celebrations for the first time in decades.

"We have not participated in national day events in the recent past. There is a change of attitude and approach of the new government," TNA lawmaker M A Sumanthiran said.

"We recognise that and we want to reciprocate." The new president shed the usual display of weapons and flypast by the air force and settled for a military parade involving four officers and 96 soldiers at a simple ceremony outside the national parliament.

In last month's election, Sirisena defeated long-time strongman Mahinda Rajapakse, who fell out with the West over allegations of wartime rights abuses by the security forces.