PANDEMONIUM AT KUMAR RUPASINGHE ORGANIZED ANTI-WAR RALLY
WHEN BUDDHIST MONKS INVADE PLATFORM AND ASK QUESTIONS

By Walter Jayawardhana

The photo shows how Buddhist monks were being pushed out of the Kumar Rupasinghe anti-war rally at Vihara Maha Devi Park (Photo by AP)

The United National Party representative and parliamentarian Rajitha Senaratne apparently outraged by the pandemonium created at the anti war rally organized mainly by the UNP and controversial political activist Kumar Rupasinghe called the Buddhist monks who came to Viharamahadevi Park to question them as thugs and compared them to “Devadattayas”.

Equally outraged by the incident was Kumar Rupasinghe who said that those bhikkus were hiding behind the robe and insulting Buddhism.

Both of them made those statements over the Sandeshaya, the BBC’s Sinhala program after the rally that had less than one thousand participants at Colombo’s Vihara Maha Devi Park. The cash for expenses for the rally was reportedly provided by several foreign funded NGO’s including the one headed by Kumar Rupasinghe.

Making another statement an official of one of the NGO’s Rev. Father Anura Perera, a catholic priest said the intruders were chased away.

Pandemonium prevailed at the anti-war rally mainly organized under the guidance of controversial former brother in law of President Chandrika Kumaratunga , Mr. Kumar Rupasinghe and UNP politician Rajitha Senaratne who are organizing meetings to pressure government to stop the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The meeting stopped for a while and fist fights were exchanged after some Buddhist monks who invaded the platform and tried to ask some questions and some organizers of the meeting tried to remove the robes of the Buddhist monks in outrage, eyewitnesses said. The protesting bhikkus also tried to exhibit a banner. The LTTE controlled Tamil Net published a photograph showing the meeting organizers and a Buddhist monk engaged in a heated exchange and Kumar Rupasinghe engaged in a heated exchange.

The Buddhist monks came and questioned the motive of the meeting and exhibited a banner protesting against the rally, they said.

The Secretary of the Jathika Bhikku Front (National Buddhist Monk’s Front), Venerable Galabbodawatte Gnanasara said that the bhikkus went to the anti war rally to peacefully question the organizers of their political motives. He said the organizers had no moral right to speak against the national effort when the whole country was getting united under one voice that the terrorism of the brutal uncivilized movement of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam should be crushed.

He said people like Rajitha Senaratne, Kumar Rupasinghe and Mano Ganeshan instead of bravely facing the questions were engaged in acrimonious verbal assaults against them. He said they would continue to go to those meetings and continue to ask those questions. He called those who were pretending to be representing peace were actually representing the war effort of Prabhakaran who is waging war against the country. He said earlier various peace movements like Sudu Nelum, Thavalama had crushed many attempts to end a terrorist insurgency and this time too they were trying to do it. He said the meeting organizers were ghosts representing Prabhakaran.

One significant factor evident at this rally was that a section of the Mahinda Rajapaksa government was also represented in the meeting. People like Deputy Minister Mervyn Silva and Minister Dilan Perera are close allies of the former President Chandrika Kumaratunga. They were closely attached with the former President Chandrika Kumaratunga who was engaged in a secret campaign to unsuccessfully defeat President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the previous Presidential election. Dilan Perera freely attacks the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna who supports the government in the parliament.

Rajitha Senaratne has been getting involved in anti-Buddhist statements and attacked the Buddhist principles of “Dasaraja Dharmaya” a moral code for Buddhist rulers, in the past. Though it has nothing to do with medieval era politics, he has attacked it as medieval nonsense.

The main organizer of the rally Kumar Rupasinghe had been engaged in Sri Lanka politics in the sixties using his power being the son in law of the former Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike and husband of Sunethra Bandaranaike leading a group called Jana Vegaya. With their unsuccessful marriage that ended in acrimonious allegations that Sunethra was extremely cruel the political movement crashed. Living abroad and getting involved in many international controversies that allegedly prevented him going back to some African countries Kumar Rupasinghe kept on coming back to Sri Lanka, spending foreign funds, and speaking supportively of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Additional information Courtesy SinhalaNet

Thugs antiwar lobby who were on the stage started physically and verbally abusing the Bikkhus, who protested peacefully

Leading Members of the National Movement Against War including Vasudeva Nanayakkara and Dilan Perera were seen abusing the members of the Jathika Sangha sammelanaya (JSS) or National Bikkhu Conference who were staging a peaceful protest against the demands of the anti war protestors.

Chamil Jayaneththi A member of the antiwar lobby who were on the stage started physically and verbally abusing the Bikkhus, who protested peacefully. Chamil Jayaneththi who was the last presidential election candidature of the New Left Front.

after the attack to the Maha Sangha the rally was 100% unsuccessful with the minor participants. All the peace loving participants were escaped from the ground with the attack to the innocent Maha Sangha by the so called peace activists.

So called human rights lawyer Nimalka Fernando, age 51, denied that she was verbally abusing the bikkhus