Sri Lanka marked its independence anniversary Sunday with President Mahinda Rajapakse inviting Tiger rebel proxies in parliament to join his effort to end decades of ethnic bloodshed.
Rajapakse asked the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to join the "All Party Conference" to prepare a political solution to the conflict, which has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972.
"I also wish to make this appeal to the Tamil National Alliance represented in parliament, who have so far not entered into dialogue or understanding with us," he said in an address to the nation marking the 59th anniversary of freedom.
"It is only by joining with us that the innocent Tamil people of the north can be liberated from terrorist intimidation and the misdeeds of violence," he said in an nationally televised speech from Colombo.
The speech came as police and troops stepped up the already tight security in the capital following the discovery of a powerful bomb hidden in a taxi at a garage near a stadium where thousands of troops were billeted.
The TNA, which consists of moderate Tamils who have accepted the Tamil Tigers as sole representatives of minority Tamils, has 22 seats in the 225-member parliament. If the TNA joined in an all-party effort, the government would be within striking distance of cobbling together the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution after 18 opposition legislators defected last week, analysts said.
Any deal with the Tamils would require an amendment to the constitution.
The president's latest offer came a day after a similar invitation to the Tiger rebels to resume direct peace negotiations, which stalled in October. Diplomatic attempts led by Norway have failed to keep the warring sides at the negotiating table. During a visit to the restive east of the island Saturday, Rajapakse also asked the Tigers to lay down their arms.
Rajapakse vowed to "defeat separatism" during his speech on Sunday and asked the media to "act with responsibility."
"I appeal to the working people of this country not to supply oxygen, consciously or not, to terrorism that is gasping for life. I also call on the media to also act with responsibility in this regard."
He inspected a military display of firepower on the anniversary marking Sri Lanka's independence from Britain in 1948 at the seafront Galle Face promenade here.
The battle-hardened military displayed some of their most lethal weapons against the Tigers, including multi-barrel rocket launchers, while the airforce flew their Israeli-built Kfir jets and MiG-27 attack craft. Earlier in the day, 100 girls clad in white traditional cloth and jackets sang the national anthem.
Sri Lanka freed more than a thousand prisoners to mark the day, in an amnesty aimed at inmates convicted of minor, or non-violent, offences, a prisons official said.
"Around 1,989 inmates, mostly serving minor offences, were released from prisons throughout the country," Commissioner General of Prisons Major General Vajira Wijeyagoonawardena told AFP. Sri Lanka has 28 prisons that hold 26,000 inmates scattered across the island.
Officials said low-key celebrations were also held in the island's restive northern and eastern regions while troops maintained a red alert against possible rebel attacks.
More than 4,000 people have been killed in fighting since December 2005 despite a truce arranged by peace broker Norway in February 2002.
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