Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Wednesday called for reconciliation to bring together people of the island’s South and North.
Despite the end of the war in 2009, when the country had an opportunity to move ahead and unite the people, “we were unable to do so,” he said, addressing the country on the occasion of its 67th Independence Day. Bringing together the minds of people in the island’s Sinhalese-majority South, and Tamil-dominated North was “the biggest challenge facing the country”, he said, less than a month after he assumed charge as the country’s President, after defeating his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa in the January 8 elections.
Sri Lanka had the responsibility of asking “where we have gone wrong, and how we could correct those errors”, he said.
Referring to his pre-election promises, President Sirisena said he was committed to strengthening the public service, strengthening the Parliament and removing the unlimited powers of the executive presidency. “We shall definitely implement the promises made to the people.”
