Colombo, Feb 03: Sri Lanka's military top brass were red faced today after discovering that the "Dummy President" they saluted at independence day rehearsals here was a junior woman constable, officials said.

For the first time in decades, the military chiefs and the police inspector general took part in the dress rehearsals for tomorrow's celebrations and only learnt of their faux pas after the event, officials said.
"Usually it is the president's senior most official who would be sent for something like this," an official organising the celebrations said. "We didn't know that the woman sent by the President's office was a constable from her security unit."


"What can we do? her star must be good and she has a picture of a life time showing service chiefs saluting her." Previous independence day celebrations had been scaled down because of fears of Tamil rebel attacks. Government troops and the rebel liberation tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) entered into a truce in February last year and are engaged in Norwegian-backed peace talks.

Bureau Report