As a native english speaker, I paused when I saw that construct too. Looking at the google results, these are examples of the way I would expect those words to be put together:

* "Video games could make violence on the whole seem more 'okay.'"

* "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has promised to make violence on the basis of sexual orientation a priority for her office."

The only google result that seems similar to the original article is from asianoutlook.com:

"You can make violence on weeds, ideas, and terror, but not war."

In that sense, it's closer to the phrase "make war on", which is much more common. Without knowing any asian languages, I would assume that they use war and violence somewhat interchangeably, which would explain the odd phrasing.

It seems like a pre-meditated attempt at non-standard usage. Sounds kind of like something Samuel L. Jackson might say in righteous anger.

It's a bit nonstandard sounding to me, but understandable.