In The Name of God-Cruelty, Conspiracies and Hypocrisy
The Mysterious Death of Ven. Rathmalane Seelawanse Thero of
Sri Rathanasara Buddhist Centre,Thanamalwila

By Ramani D.Wickramaratne

Christmas according to all newspapers is a time for peace, reconciliation, forgiveness and mercy-all these in the name of God-the all merciful. However, we have seen how contradictory these adjectives used to describe "The Almighty" are when it comes to the actions of His disciples who are here as Reverend Fathers or Pastors. They dupe the gullible innocent civilians, bribe them and employ paid workers to plot and plan the destruction of Buddhist Temples and inflict bodily harm as well as the murder of Buddhist monks who they feel are a threat to their dubious activities of unethical conversions of unsuspecting Buddhists in villages which are inhabited by wholly Buddhists or Hindus.

In 2004 December we experienced the mysterious death of Ven. Gangodawila Soma Thero who was taken to Russia by promising a doctorate to the Venerable monk. Todate, the mystery behind his death is yet to be solved.

The Death of Ven. Rathmalane Seelawanse Thero:

On 23rd December 2006, we heard of the most gruesome and mysterious death of Ven. Rathmalane Seelawanse Thero of Sri Rathanasara Buddhist Centre, Thanamalwila in the Hambantota District. Unlike in the death of Ven. Gangodawila Soma Thero, in the case of Ven. Seelawanse Thero the perpetrators are well known and they have been very active in plotting the destruction of this feerless monk who left no stones unturned to expose the duplicity of Pastor Ashley Samarasinghe who has been actively buying over the Principal of the village school; the police officers of the area and paying of noted thugs and even an individual employed in the army to harass, plot and plan; expedite operations; pressurize villagers into making false allegations against this monk; file court cases against him to insult and humiliate him- you name it, they have resorted to every possible method to destroy the reputation of the monk. For the last 2 years especially, Ven. Seelawanse Thero has been like a "hounded animal" constantly under surveillance, constantly under threat to his life, one attempt to throw a bomb into his temple and one attempt to shoot him at night have all been plotted. The principal of the Angunakolawewa Junior School Mr. E.K. Piyasena and A.K. Priyantha an army officer based in Jaffna have been strong conspirators together with Pastor Ashley Samarasinghe. The highly decomposed body of Ven. Seelawanse Thero with head injuries and 3 wounds in the chest supposedly from gunshots and bruised back, was transferred to the Hambantota Hospital 23rd December 2006 and a post-mortem was held by the responsible medical officer on 24th December 2006 has given the ruling of "homicide" as the cause of death. Although the monk's body was found inside his temple, no blood stains have been found inside the building which gives us the assumption that the monk was taken bodily to an unknown location outside the temple, murdered and brought back and dumped in the temple.

Sri Rathanasara Buddhist Centre, Thanamalwila- Mysterious Deaths and Disappearance of Monks:

" In 1989 September, Ven. Thiranagama Rathanasara Thero was murdered in the temple;

" From 1989-1999 after the death of Ven. Rathanasara Thero, a number of monks had come to reside at this temple and work for the welfare of Thanamalwila villagers who are poor, innocent and helpless. The monks were keen to give a proper Buddhist education to the village children. However, Pastor Ashley Samarasinghe had used his thugs and paid workers to get rid of these monks by threatening them and ordering them never to return to Thanamalwila;

" In 2001, Ven.Rathmalane Seelawanse Thero went to occupy and reside at Sri Rathanasara Buddhist Centre. Being a fearless monk, he was able to rally the villagers and curtail the unethical conversion activities of Pastor Ashley Samarasinghe. Ven. Seelawanse Thero opened and operated 18 pre-schools in the area to give the children a Buddhist education instead of subjecting them to Christian dogmas. This angered Pastor Samarasinghe who avowed to destroy the monk someday.

" In 2003 February, thugs broke into the temple premises, knocked on the door and when Ven. Seelawanse opened the door, threw a hand bomb into the room with a view of killing the monk but fortunately, the monk escaped with minor injuries;

" In 2006 February, a complaint was made by a girl attending the Dhamma School of Ven. Seelawasne at the police station to say that the monk had attempted to molest her. She is supposed to have stated to the WPC that she was threatened by her uncle that if she did not make the statement to the police, he would kill her mother. The girl had stated that she was making the statement due to fear that her uncle would harm their family;

" In 2006 April on 21st, Ven. Seelawanse Thero's temple was surrounded by a gang who bundled him into his 3 wheeler (the girl's uncle was also present) and drove him to the girl's house. There they had beaten the monk and abused him mercilessly in the process of which, a police officer also had arrived at the scene and kicked and abused the monk without giving him a hearing. Towards the early hours of April 22nd, they had driven the monk to the police station and kept him in a jeep till morning without taking a statement from him. Later, the monk was moved to the hospital and then to the Tangalle prison where he was kept until he was produced in courts and bailed out;

" In 2006 November Ven. Seelawanse Thero who was utterly frustrated with the manner in which the police were conducting his court cases and the continuous harassment from the Pastor Ashley Samarasinghe gang, wrote a booklet outlining in detail, the sequence of events, the underhand dealings of Pastor Ashley Samarasinghe and the indifference and negligence of the police to attend to any of his complaints. In this booklet called "In This Injustice, You are The Jury"( me avanaduwe, juriya obayi- mame Rathmalane Seelawanse Himi(Sinhala translation);

" In 2006 December 23rd, we hear that Ven. Seelawanse Thero has been murdered and that his body is in a highly decomposed state with head injuries and 3 wounds to the chest. The post-mortem verdict "homicide"

Press Control By Christians:

In order to accomplish the agendas of the Christian bretheren, they have ensured that they have controlling powers in the editorial staff of almost all newspapers in this country. Any articles which might seem to be pointing fingers at shortcomings of the Church, or else which might be highlighting the exceptional qualities of Buddhist personalities are conveniently "censored" by the editorial staff of these newspapers and never published.

In relation to Ven. Seelawanse Thero's harassment, a gentleman wrote to the Sinhala newspapers highlighting his predicament with a view of enlightening the Sinhala readership about harassment meted out to Buddhist monks but it was not published in a single Sinhala paper. By chance if an article does get published which is unfavourable to Christians, the editor of that newspaper will surely receive a phone call before long, to inform them that no further patronizing will be done in the form of advertising if that newspaper continues to publish articles harmful to Christian interests! That is the extent to which they go, to ensure that Buddhist issues do not receive due coverage in the press media!

"Press freedom" in this country, is freedom only for non-Buddhists to air their views and grievances, but not meant for Buddhists to air their grievances. Terrorists in this country are given more coverage than Buddhists!

What is The Use of "Inter-Religious Committees" for Such Anti-Buddhist Conspiracies?

When the Christian Churches are deliberately conspiring against Buddhists and Hindus and employing paid workers to expedite their plots, it should be obvious to any sane thinking individuals that an Inter-Religious Committee is of absolutely no use for any non-Christian to gain any impartial solution to their problems. When the perpetrators themselves are Christians (which includes Catholics, Protestants and Evangelists), will the Christian members of these Committees give a fair hearing? It is very obvious, that their suggestion for such Committees to be implemented, is to whitewash their own sins. This will be a way of dragging on issues without any viable solution given to the victims except humiliation and frustrations. No doubt, this again is their own conspiracy to soft-peddle their own wrong doings.

Unfortunately for us, we have reputed Buddhist monks who have fallen prey to the conspiracies of the "Inter-Religious Committee" concept of the Churches and who are now almost totally under the "thumb control" of the Christian Churches and their view-points. Without even understanding the implications, they "parrot- talk" what the Reverend Fathers of the Christian Alliance want them to say- this indeed is the extent to which some Bhikkus are gullible!

Why Is "The Anti-Conversion Bill" So Important to Be Implemented?

In a democratically elected country with its own judicial system in place, all victimized parties must be able to appeal to a court of law, for them to get a fair and impartial hearing on the from an independent body. In this exercise, they will be able to retain their own lawyers who will present the case as it should be and not like in the "Inter-Religious Committees" where members could twist the interpretations to suit their own agendas. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that relevant police authorities and the judiciary become part of this "problem solving operation" even though it might take some time.

So many incidents have taken place during the last 10-15 years with no proper solution and therefore, it became evident to Buddhists and Hindus that a Bill must be passed in parliament without further delay. Freedom of Conscience does not mean that aggressors can override the religious freedom of others!

Buddhists have never ever shed blood to propagate Buddhism nor have they ever plotted and planned to do any bodily harm to any believer of another faith. However, the same cannot be said of over zealous Christians and Muslims who are utterly intolerant of believers of other faiths. They will even go to the extent of paying individuals to harm their own places of worship and implicate Buddhists and also spread distorted information through their Christian websites world-wide which they are doing all the time. All this is done "in the name of God" who is so merciful, loving and forgiving- is this not the height of hypocrisy?

The case of Ven. Rathmalane Seelawanse Thero is another example of their ruthless conspiracies. Who knows how many more Buddhist monks are targeted- we will probably see in the very near future? Let us hope that the Government of Sri Lanka will take appropriate steps to implement the necessary Bills which could expose the activities of heartless conspirators!