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Monks turn nasty as temple feud erupts

"I am used to seeing drunken men fighting, but here we had tea-drinking monks involved in a fight. It's strange and degrading for Buddhism in our country."

Pel Kosal, Battambang deputy police chief

Buddhist monks, who are sworn to shun all violence, fired metal balls from slingshots and threw burning gasoline bottles at each other as a long-simmering conflict erupted into fighting at a temple in northwestern Cambodia, officials said yesterday.

The "monks' war," which resulted in a number of injuries, broke out Thursday at Russey pagoda in the northwestern province of Battambang, said Pel Kosal, a local deputy police chief.

He said the violence followed more than two years of conflict between two temple factions over the selection of a new committee to manage the temple's affairs and funds. Each side has about 20 monks.

The rivalry began when the pagoda's abbot, 34-year-old So Youwath, accused a layman at the temple of corruption and tried to bar him from running for the committee's top job.

"I am used to seeing drunken men fighting, but here we had tea-drinking monks involved in a fight. It's strange and degrading for Buddhism in our country," Pel Kosal said.

He said authorities had asked both sides to leave the temple after the conflict began in mid-2002. One faction, headed by the unidentified layman, initially agreed to go but decided to stay on after So Youwath ignored the request.

The two sides engaged in periodic clashes but on Thursday "they just got nastier. They threw stones, fired slingshots, threw burning gasoline bottles at each other," Pel Kosal said by telephone from Battambang.

One civilian and seven monks were injured, one seriously, while fire caused damage to some parts of the temple.

All monks were evicted from the temple grounds following the clash.

So Youwath said in a telephone interview that one of his supporters suffered a twisted ankle and another coughed blood after he was beaten by opponents.

"Five monks on my side were wounded. Some of them bled from their heads after they were hit by slingshot balls," he said, adding that he suffered cuts from broken glass.

He claimed that his side did not engage in violence and blamed his opponents for starting the incident, "which was like a war."

But the abbot said he and his supporters had stocked up on wooden staves to guard themselves against their rivals.

The pagoda is now closed to its former occupants pending action by the government and is being guarded by about 30 policemen, said Pel Kosal.

Battambang's provincial capital is situated about 250km northwest of the capital Phnom Penh.
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