AFP: A Tamil language version of Sri Lanka’s national anthem was dropped from Independence Day celebrations Tuesday, with critics saying the move was a setback to reconciliation after years of ethnic civil war.

A Tamil language version was included in the 2016 event as part of a push to heal the wounds of a 37-year war between Tamil separatists and the Sinhalese majority. But at celebrations marking the 72nd anniversary of independence from Britain on Tuesday, the anthem was sung only in Sinhala.

Opposition legislator Mano Ganesan said dropping the anthem in Tamil was disappointing.

“By rejecting the anthem in Tamil... in front of local and the international community, the Government has justified discrimination, and has disappointed patriots,” said Ganesan, a former Minister of National Integration and Official Languages.

Several private media organisations also said dropping the Tamil version was a setback to reconciliation.

Authorities insisted the anthem could still be sung in either language.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s 20-minute speech in Sinhala, however, was translated into Tamil – the language of the largest minority, who account for just over 15% of the country’s 21 million people.

Rajapaksa won November elections in a landslide with the backing of the majority Sinhalese, for whom he is a hero.

He was a key figure in the crushing of Tamil Tiger separatists that ended Sri Lanka’s conflict in May 2009.

The war claimed more than 100,000 lives between 1972 and 2009.

In his address, Rajapaksa vowed there would be no discrimination.

“As the President today, I represent the entire Sri Lankan nation irrespective of ethnicity, religion, party affiliation or other differences,” he said.

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72nd Independence Day celebrations

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