Source: The Daily Times
Wire Service: AFP
http://archives.dailynews.lk/2004/12/02/wor02.html
On December 1, 2004 Agence France-Presse reported, "Buddhist monks prayed for world peace Tuesday at the start of a conference in the Nepal village of Lumbini - revered as Buddha’s birthplace - that is aimed at promoting the site as a 'city of world peace.' Soon after the World Buddhist Conference opened, Maoist rebels called off a 48-hour general strike in the area they had planned as part of an armed campign to overthrow the monarchy and install a communist republic. The Maoists said in a statement issued to local media they were abandoning the strike that began at dawn Tuesday 'after appeals by religious people coming to Lumbini and human rights groups.'"