Pageantry of valour

Wijitha NAKKAWITA

It was a sight to behold when the Security Forces and the Police, in full ceremonial dress marched past the dais saluting the Commander-in-Chief, with precision, timing and coordination that would be the envy of all. In a synchronized display the Sri Lanka Air Force and the Sri Lanka Navy joined the fiesta in the sky and the sea blending the whole into a majestic pageant of colour and valour.

The grateful public who had come to witness the parade of their beloved Heroes and breathed the air of new found freedom stood spellbound with mouths agape admiring the gallantry of the saviours of the nation.

Their hearts throbbed with joy at the sight of the military hardware that was on display as they could well fathom how much each piece of that hardware would have helped in the war that liberated the land from terrorism.

The traditional dances performing to the tune of the drum beat were a pleasant sight to behold and one that invokes a feeling of patriotic pride on the richness of the country’s rich culture. The entire occasion was so solemn, so grandiose and so eloquent that even the customary warmth of the sun had turned mild and soothing with the cool breeze that swept across the vastness of the Indian Ocean and hugged the Galle Face green in a friendly embrace.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Commander in Chief of the three Armed Forces, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, Speaker W.J.M. Lokubandara, Ministers, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Chief of Defence Staff, the Commanders of the Three Armed Forces, the Inspector General of Police and head of the Civil Defence Force were present at the victory parade.

The ceremony started with 100 schools girls singing the national anthem and Jayamangala Gatha and hoisting the National Flag by President Rajapaksa.

The march past of all the divisions of the three Forces was very colourful and the Artillery Corps fired 21 gun salute to the President and the three Commanders of the Forces presented scrolls to the President – the Commander in Chief of the Three Forces officially informing him that the entire territory of the country had been liberated by the Forces and that the humanitarian operations of the forces had been successfully concluded.

The ceremony became poignant when a number of disabled members of the Armed Forces on wheel-chairs pushed by their comrades in arms were taken past the President and the visitors and the spectators and VIPs rose to their feet in a standing ovation for the heroic war heroes and a large number of people were seen moved to tears at the sight of those brave men.

The cultural pageants presented by the cultural troupes of the Forces and the schools represented from all parts of the country including the North and East was also very colouful and symbolic of national unity and over a thousand traditional drums beaten in the rhythm of victory seemed to reach the crescendo of the event.

One of the most colourful moments came when paratroopers of the three forces came down from 6,000 feet above the Green in their ceremonial uniforms in colouful parachutes.