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Athurugiriya safe house report out next month
By Chandani Kirinde
The report of the one-man Presidential Commission appointed to inquire and report on the existence and the subsequent police raid on the alleged Army safe house at Athurugirya will be handed over to President Chandrika Kumaratunga next month.

The final sitting of the Commission was held on September 4 when Interior Minister John Amaratunga gave evidence. A total of 69 witnesses gave evidence before the Commissioner, retired Justice Dharmasiri Jayawickrema. They included the Army Commander Lt.Gen. Lionel Balagalle, the Inspector General of Police T.E. Anandarajah, Defence Secretary Austin Fernando and Treasury Secretary Charitha Ratwatte.

All the evidence was heard in public except of those by men of the Army intelligence unit. Although the Commission was appointed in August last year for a period of three months, its work was hindered due to the delay of the relevant authorities to provide police officers to assist the Commission and several extensions were given to conclude its work.

Some of the matters in the terms of reference required the Commissioner to inquire into whether there were any compelling reasons for the Police to raid the safe house and take action in the manner they did, taking into custody several Army personnel, whether directions were obtained from the IGP or any other higher authority before such a raid was carried out and whether this action in any manner helped to neutralise the military strategy of the Army in combating terrorism in the North and East.

The Commissioner was also required to make recommendations to prevent interference by any officials in the military strategies of the armed forces executed on orders of the commanders of the armed forces.

Lensman gets Rs. one million damages
A photographer has been awarded one million rupees as damages after the courts held that his intellectual property rights had been violated by the publication of his photographs without his consent four years ago (1999) in the Daily News and Dinamina newspapers.

The judgment was delivered by L.K. Wimalachandra, the Judge of the Commercial High Court, Colombo. The case had been filed by Shantha Chandragupta of Talawatugoda claiming that photographs taken by him during the 1983 July riots at Borella junction where violence had erupted, had been published without his consent.
He claimed that he was assaulted by thugs who tried to prevent him from taking the photographs.

It was argued that the photographer had lost the prospects of selling or exhibiting these particular photographs with the newspapers publishing them. The photographs were exclusive and had received wide public attention locally and internationally.
It was observed that these photographers cannot be taken as and when anyone wished or desired to take them but only on the occurrence of a similar event.

On behalf of the ANCL it was argued that the photographer had not published photographs for 14 years. However the photographer had explained that he did not get an opportunity to publish the said photographs. The photographer was represented by attorneys-at-law Saliya Peiris and Upul Kumarapperuma with Chamath Madanayake.

Code to curb sexual torment
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Employers Federation of Ceylon (EFC) will be launching a set of guidelines for employers on "Procedures to address sexual harassment in the workplace", on Tuesday.

A subcommittee comprising of representatives from the Government, the employers organisation and the trade unions has drafted the guidelines, which are a voluntary instrument.

Surveys done in Asia and the Pacific region indicate have indicated that mostly young women who are under precarious employment contracts, migrants, domestic workers and workers in sex-segregated or single sex dominated occupations are vulnerable to sexual harassment, the ILO office in Colombo said.

The ceremony to launch the procedures to address sexual harassment will be held at the Colombo Plaza.

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