Pro-war monks turn peace rally into fracas

COLOMBO, Aug 18 (IPS) - "When saffron-clad Buddhists monks and Catholic priests and nuns in white are joined by Muslim and Hindu leaders in an interfaith rally for peace, the last thing anyone would expect is that their pacific efforts would end in fisticuffs.

"Chanting 'no war, no war' the marchers, on Thursday, wended their way to a public park in the capital where their speeches were rudely interrupted by a group of fiery pro-war Buddhist monks. The peace campaigners were told to take their banners and rally to the east of the island where fighting has been raging between Tamil separatist militants and the armed forces, for over a fortnight.

"The unseemly scenes that followed, in which pro and anti-war monks pushed and punched each other were, to many onlookers, of a piece with the mindlessness that has marked more than two decades of ethnic conflict that has pitted the majority Buddhist Sinhala community against the minority Tamils.

"After the loss of 65,000 lives during that period, and with no end in sight to the conflict, most ordinary citizens seem to have resigned themselves to daily brutalities and rights violations ..."
IPS News

Tagged: sri+lanka, war, peace, religion, activism