Independence day celebrations in Trincomalee

The preparations for Sri Lanka's 65th independence day ceremony in Trincomalee are in full swing and all arrangements are in place.

This year's theme is (in Singhalese) 'Asirimath Mawubimak - Isurumath Heta Dinak', or 'A Glorious Motherland - A Flourishing Tomorrow' for the majority population of Trincomalee, who mostly speak Tamil.

President Rajapakse will be part of the celebrations, along with 2,500 other invited guests, which will include members of the Sri Lankan Army and foreign embassy staff.

Public Administration and Home Affairs Minister W D J Seneviratne said over 3,000 personnel representing the Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Civil Security Department, National Cadet Corps and National Youth Corps will take part in a parade followed by a cultural pageant comprising 860 artistes belonging to 16 cultural groups.

At a press conference in October, Prime Minister D.M. Jeyaratne was reported to have said that the decision was made “under the direction” of the president, Mahinda Rajapakse and the “celebrations” will be a unique opportunity for the people in the North-East to witness “symbolic unity” of the country.

The ancient port town of Trincomalee is one of the largest cities in the Tamil homeland and is a significant cultural and religious centre of the Eelam Tamil nation.

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button