Sri Lanka monk says no peace until top rebel dead

Reuters via ABC News International ^ | 17 February 2006 | Simon Gardner

[Racehorse]

A Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka, who heads a religious party opposed to a Tamil homeland in the north and east, says the country would be better off if the reclusive rebel leader of the Tamil Tigers were dead.

Venerable Ellawala Medhananda, head of the National Heritage Party, or Jathika Hela Urumaya, said the government should be prepared to fight the rebels, led by Velupillai Prabhakaran, to the bitter end if peace talks in Switzerland next week fail.

"If Prabhakaran is dead, Sri Lanka is a better place," he told Reuters in an interview at a Buddhist center in the island's capital, Colombo. "He is the stumbling block to the peace process. We should take his influence out of society."

Medhanadna, a political ally of President Mahinda Rajapakse, said his sentiment did not contradict the tenets of peace and harmony for which Buddhism is known the world over.

"Even Buddhist monks can act in self-defense," said the 69-year-old, who became a monk at the age of 12 and enjoys a revered status in Sri Lanka, like other Buddhist monks.

"Buddhist monks (elsewhere) have learned fighting techniques like Kung Fu for their self defense. Therefore fighting for self defense is not against Buddhist principles," said Medhananda, wearing a saffron robe, glasses and close-cropped hair.

A policeman carrying an automatic rifle stood guard near a shrine and a sacred Buddhist Bo tree in a courtyard outside to protect the outspoken MP.

"We now face a terrorist problem. They are attacking us, so why can't we fight in self-defence?"

[Hoodlum91]

You know you're bad when a Buddhist monk advocates for your death!

[Caveman Lawyer]

Reminds me of the "Gandhi II" sequence from UHF.

[battousai]

Trust me the Buddhist monks of Sri Lanka are as far from the tenants of Buhdism as you can get, they are primarily concerned with racial, Singhalese, superiority and subjugation of the Tamil race over any peace.

They are the same forces who have to date not allowed any aid into the tamil areas ravaged by the Tsunami. They are also the same group vehmently opposed to any sort of peace settlement.

And going back in history they are the very force that instigated the decades old problems in Sri Lanka.

It is ironic that infact the very opposite of this sentiment is the solution to Sri Lanka's problems. The current government is only in power due to the extermist Budhist parties and so they cannot go forward with any of the agreements they reached with the rebels in the last talks even if they want to. If said parties were to be out of power peace would be achieved much sooner.

Despite what they may have done the only reason Tamils are even living in any semblence of security in the North East of Sri Lanka is because they are defended by the LTTE, decades of persecution have show the Sri Lankan government would care more for a stray dog than any Tamil.