It is Young People that Give Me Hope

Abstract

Seventy-seven years after gaining independence and 11 years after the end of a long civil war, Sri Lankan public discourse is still searching for a broadly accepted concept of national identity and struggling to find constructive ways of dealing with the past. In this interview the former president of Sri Lanka (1994–2005) Madam Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga reflects on deeply rooted conflicts in society, the various outbreaks of violence, political mistakes made in the past, and her own role in the peace process and in reconciliation.