Hardline Buddhists Monks Punch Moderates at Peace Rally

Sri Lanka has had more than its share of communal violence between the Tamil and Sinhalese ethnic groups. A two-decade civil war sort of ended when a truce was declared in 2002. However, the island formerly known as Ceylon has recently been suffering from the worst violence in four years. So a peace rally was held. Unfortunately, hardline Buddhist monks and their more moderate brethren started fighting, breaking up the rally. Om mani padme humbug.

The Reuters report speaks for itself.

Organizers said there were around 1,000 people in a park in the capital, Colombo, listening to a range of speakers when hardline saffron-robed monks opposed to concessions to Tamil Tiger rebels mounted the stage and erected banners. Some more moderate Buddhist monks, protesting for peace, were already on the stage when punches were thrown. Soon, monks' robes and fists were flying, although no one was badly hurt, witnesses said.

‘They were saying we should go to war,’ said pro-peace monk Madampawe Assagee. ‘We like to listen to other opinions so we let them do that but then they started fighting and we couldn’t control some of our people. They tried to make it a big fight but we settled it in a few minutes.

A Reuters photographer said the fight first erupted between a speaker at the rally -- a former government minister -- and a monk, and then turned into a wider brawl. Other religious leaders on the platform found themselves dragged into the melee.

“By force, they disrupted the protest,” said Jehan Perera, head of the National Peace Council, who took part in a peace march earlier in the day but had gone by the time the fight erupted. “But I think they’re the minority. Most of the people we walked past were very supportive.”