Walk for Peace: The Uncertain Potential of a Significant Moment

Photo courtesy of Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi

The Global Walk for Peace started in the US at a time the country was posing a grave threat to world peace through its military aggression, including with Israel against Palestine. In this context, a walk for peace across the US was a significant anti-war statement even if no explicit condemnation of war and support for peace was evident.

If such a walk by local or foreign Buddhist monks happened in Sri Lanka during height war when thousands were being massacred, forcibly disappeared, injured and displaced, it would have been significant but nothing of the sort happened. But a walk for peace in today’s Sri Lanka can still be meaningful if it really tries to contribute towards sustainable peace with justice in post-war context.

The feel good effect

In Buddhist majority areas, particularly in rural villages, monks peacefully walking alone or together in single file for pinda patha is a common site. It generates genuine local community support and provides a sense of calm with no blocking of roads, no media coverage, state patronage or fanfare.

But the present peace walk is different as it received state patronage, widespread media coverage and public lining up the roads to greet and be blessed by the walking monks. The monks would have had to make extra and exceptional spiritual efforts to walk in peace amid all this fuss. There were personally moving moments such as the monks stopping to talk to or bless persons in wheel chairs and young babies brought to the roadside. The monks being welcomed by mosques and churches was also very significant.

Gaza and Sri Lanka

The walk must be seen in a global context. It commenced soon after a complaint to police to investigate the presence of an alleged war criminal from Gaza in Sri Lanka. Although the police were deployed in force to support the walk, they have not taken action to investigate the complaint despite the urgency based on possibility the suspect may leave the country. A similar complaint before was never inquired into.

The latest complaint was about Jake Burkons, a dual national of Israel and the US, who had served in Company D of the 603rd Combat Engineering Battalion, part of the 7th Armoured Brigade of the Israeli army. This battalion has been accused of widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure across Gaza, including residential buildings, mosques, agricultural land and industrial facilities. The unit has also been implicated in attacks on hospitals and in the unlawful detention and ill-treatment of civilians. Burkons published visual evidence on his social media accounts showing his presence inside Gaza, including holding a detonation cable inside a destroyed civilian building alongside fellow soldiers, indicating active participation.

The walk continued as government proclaims support for Palestine while continuing diplomatic relations with Israel, sends its workers there in organized manner and welcomes Israeli tourists such as war criminal suspects like Burkons.

The walk also coincided with Sameera Mehboobdeen, a member of the Free Palestine Movement of Sri Lanka, leaving the country for a high risk Sail for Peace, by joining the civilian-led Global Sumud Flotilla, to break the illegal siege of Gaza and stand with the Palestinian people. This is the kind of movement that the walk could and should identify with.

Freedom of expression

The walk started and continued amid a controversy of books about war and peace being detained. The books in question were by Tamil author Theepachelvan Piratheepan, who was born, grew up and wrote articles, poetry and novels during war and later in a highly militarised and oppressive post-war situation. According to him, experiences of war, loss, memory and oppression are at the core of his work and purpose of his writing was to document hidden or unspoken truths and to preserve memory.

During the peace walk itself, peace was challenged when journalists covering the walk were assaulted and restricted by an advisor of Presidential Media Division and the police. Whether the monks were aware of these or intervened is not known.

Aloka and animal cruelty laws

The dog Aloka, often called peace dog, was an endearing presence during the walk in the US and now in Sri Lanka but there are also concerns of animal cruelty.

Dogs in Sri Lanka often spontaneously accompany humans, including strangers, during long walks. The participation of animals in public religious processions is not new, most famous being use of elephants, which has also given rise to concerns about animal cruelty. However, a significant difference between such activities and this walk is the length of the walk, spanning about 250 kilometres on eight consecutive days, during one of hottest months.

In an article posted online, the walk has been described as a procession that is prolonged, physically demanding, conducted in uncontrolled public environments and involves an animal whose participation is symbolic rather than necessary and that the risk of unnecessary suffering is not incidental but inherent in the structure of the event itself. The article argues that under the law, particularly the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance No. 13 of 1907, Aloka’s participation fall within the statutory definition of cruelty, irrespective of the intention behind the activity. It points out that the law establishes that cruelty includes not only direct harm but any act or omission that causes unnecessary pain or suffering to an animal, prohibiting over-driving or ill-treating an animal and (human) conduct that results in unnecessary suffering, regardless of intent. The article also says that the law imposes a duty to prevent suffering and that symbolic value or public sentiment cannot operate as a legal justification for exposing an animal to foreseeable harm.

Double standards

The walk is led by Venerable Pannakara Thero, a Vietnamese monk, and this brought back memories of another walking Vietnamese monk I met in April 2025. He was Minh Tue, who describes himself as an ordinary learner and practicing what Buddha has taught in scripture. He had been walking in Vietnam and other countries without label of walk for peace. He style was to walk barefoot, eat once a day (only in the morning) from food received from others, sleep in the open and not receive any money. He had no possessions except some bare essentials such as a bowl for food and to drink water. His robes are sown by himself using discarded pieces of cloth he picks up along his travels. In Sri Lanka, he commenced his walk from the airport and headed towards Jaffna.

Unlike Pannakara Thero’s delegation, Minh Tue and his followers didn’t receive state patronage and widespread media coverage. Instead, he was stopped by the police during the peaceful walk, which didn’t cause obstructions to roads or anyone. The Department of Immigration and Emigration asked him and his followers to leave Sri Lanka.

The Vietnamese government and Buddhist groups close to the government there were hostile to Minh Tue due to his growing popularity in Vietnam and a Buddhist group had made a formal request to influential Malwatte Mahanayake Thero to stop Minh Tue.  Multiple Vietnamese sources told me that the allegations in the letter were false. However, the Mahanayake Thero appeared to have responded positively to the request from Vietnamese pro-government monks to stop Minh Tue’s walk and deport him. Speaking to BBC Sinhala, the Commissioner General of Buddhist Affairs said that steps had been taken to inform the Department of Immigration and Emigration to take necessary action based on a letter received from the Malwatta Mahanayake Thera. Faced with this hostility, Minh Tue choose to leave rather than challenge the violation of fundamental rights guaranteed in the constitution to all people, not just citizens.

Potential of the walk

The walk, which went through Buddhist strongholds like Anuradhapura, Dambulla, Matale, Kandy and Kelaniya, ends in Colombo on April 28.

The symbolism of the walk not covering any of the war ravaged and non-Buddhist majority Northern and Eastern provinces was striking. It’s difficult to understand whether this was purely a matter of logistics and distance but it’s still possible to do some damage control by proactive solidarity with war-affected Tamils from that region while in Colombo.

Although the monks would have started off purely from religious basis, they must recognise the social and  political influence they wield. They have the opportunity to use that influence and goodwill to ensure all beings are well and contribute towards sustainable peace with justice. For this, they must note that nearly 17 years since the end of the war, there was no serious sustained efforts to address causes and consequences of the war and unless this is done, there will be no real peace.

It is important for the monks to move beyond the eager devotional images people who lined up the streets and understand that for many people, there’s no real peace. It includes many who are struggling to survive amid economic crisis that preceded the present global wars. It include families of those disappeared and killed, some of whom maybe buried in mass graves. It includes political prisoners in prolonged detention and those whose lands have been taken away and not returned yet. It includes the journalists who faced reprisals trying to cover the walk and those like Theepachelvan whose books are detained. It includes those affected by Easter Sunday attacks. It includes Malaiyaha community, many of whom are still living in slave like conditions with no land and housing rights. There are others longing for sustainable peace that justice will bring.

Despite the limitations so far, the walk has the potential to make a contribution towards a sustainable peace with justice through proactive, symbolic and substantial initiatives in Colombo, the seat of political and economic power. The next days will reveal whether or not the walk will leave a lasting legacy for peace in Sri Lanka.