http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8583480.stm
Some exerpts from his article:
People also said they grew up with stereotypes. Kanishka Herat, aged 18, a Sinhalese, remembers that when the Tamil Tigers were strong, there were numerous suicide bombings in Colombo and elsewhere. As a result, he told the BBC, "there was a wrong impression given about the Tamil community and other communities. There were misunderstandings among people, also there was hatred among people, people looking with a sense of suspicion to the other person even if it's their own race, ethnicity."
Kirubakaran Christin Rajah, SLU's assistant vice-president and a Tamil, grew up in a family repeatedly displaced by the fighting in the north. He lost out on the joys of childhood, had "many painful experiences", and simply felt that Tamils as a people were the unlucky ones.......
[But] attitudes changed. The big hug at the end was unpredictable. In the end it worked - it was, in Kirubakaran Christin Rajah's words, "a very important time for my life" and boding a good future.
This positive publicity was not only a great encouragement to us at Sri Lanka Unites, but more, an encouragement for ALL young people and youth organisations in the country, who are already undertaking various positive-change initiatives in post-war Sri Lanka.
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