Peace Protest Turns Violent as Monks Clash

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Peace Protest Turns Violent as Monks Clash

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COLOMBO (Digital Dementia News Services) - Protesters calling for an end to recent violence in Sri Lanka found themselves brawling with hard-line Buddhist monks after a rally dubbed a "peace protest" turned unexpectedly violent.

Organizers said there were around 1,000 people in a park in the capital, Colombo, listening to a range of speakers when hard-line 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.

Moderate Monk, Taksuchetin Norgomsokut, told reporters, “Those hard-line monks think they have the answer for everything. They’re nothing but a bunch of skinheads parading as monks and should be rounded up and thrown in jail.”

"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."

Hard-line monk Ngotthin Samerbervek (a.k.a. “Cap’n Crunch”) told reporters, “Those peacenik monks make my stomach turn. Anybody whose read any history knows you sometimes have to go to war if you want to preserve peace. We’ve knocked their heads half a dozen times in the last 6 months and they still don’t get it.”

Police who quickly arrived on the scene were not immediately able to distinguish between the hard-line monks and the moderate monks since both have shaved heads and wear saffron robes. “We had no choice but to wade into the chaos with our truncheons flying, smashing every shaved head that came into view,” said officer Rashin Gopposhun. “It was the most fun I’ve had since I joined the force.”

Sri Lanka is currently embroiled in the worst fighting with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) since a 2002 truce, with many believing a two-decade civil war has resumed. Hard-line monks -- allies of President Mahinda Rajapakse -- say the government is too soft on the rebels and want military action. Moderate monks accuse the hard-line monks of being members of the shadowy international association of International Terrorist for Peace.

The island is dominated by the Buddhist Sinhalese majority, but is also home to Muslims as well as minority Tamils -- some Hindu, some Christian. The hard-line monks are violently opposed to Tiger demands for a separate Tamil homeland. They are also said to favor armed resistance to proposed legislation that would allow a “right-turn-on-red-light”.

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.