Lankan president pledges national reconciliation

Colombo

NEW President Maithripala Sirisena vowed on Wednesday to end Sri Lanka's pariah status by working with the UN and promised national reconciliation, six years after the island's ethnic war ended.

In an address to the nation to mark Sri Lanka's 67th anniversary of independence, Mr Sirisena and his ministers also pledged never again to allow the "land to be traumatised by the shedding of blood of innocents".