The 39th death anniversary of the late premier S.W.R.D Bandaranaike will be commemorated today with religious services, almsgivings and other humanitarian events taking place all over the country.

The main commemoration ceremony will take place at the Horagolla Samadhi at 9 a.m this morning. The Welfare Society of the employees of the S. W. R. D Bandaranaike National Memorial Foundation held a pirith ceremony last night and an alms to the Mahasangha will be served today.

Alms will be served to one hundred monks at the SLFP Headquarters in Darley Road. The event has been organised by the Commemoration Committee headed by Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Dharmasiri Senanayake.

Buddha and Mal Pahan Poojas will be held at 6 p.m and a Dhamma desana at 7.30 p.m at the Bandaranaike Memorial Bodhi at Robert Gunawardena Mawatha, Kirullapone. Venerable Udugalakande Hemaloka Thera will deliver the dhamma desana.

Several other ceremonies are scheduled to be held in other areas of the country. In Galle, there will be a presentation of awards to the winners of essay and oratorical contests which were conducted at schools in the Southern Province. The Chief Guest at this event which will be held at the Galle Town hall will be Governor of the Southern Province Neville Kanakaratne and a lecture titled “Bandaranaike’s Character” will be delivered by Professor W. D. Lakshman, Vice Chairman, Colombo University at this occasion. Rural Development and Vocational Training Minister Amarasiri Dodangoda and Chief Minister Southern Province Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena will participate.

A blood donation campaign organised by the Balangoda SLFP Central Committee will be held at Kanista Vidyalaya in Balangoda from 8.30 a.m to 5 p.m. This has been organised especially for the benefit of the wounded in the armed forces and 1000 donors are expected to participate.

Uniform material will be distributed to the physically handicapped and medical clinics will be held throughout the day in the Attanagalla electorate. Sanghika danas and free distributions of spectacles and dry rations will take place at ceremonies to be held in Attanagala.

The SLFP Central Organisation, Matara will hold a special bodhi pooja at 5.30 this evening. Minister of Cultural and Religious Affairs Lakshman Jayakody and Deputy Minister Prof. A.V Suraweera will be present at a medical clinic at the Shailabimbarama Vihara, Kotadeniya that will be conducted from 9 a.m to 3 p.m.

Special traffic arrangements have been made available Police Headquarters said in respect of the closure of the Colombo-Kandy road. The road from Kalagedihena junction to Nittambuwa junction will be closed for vehicular traffic from 7 a.m to 11 a.m Police Headquarters said.

Colombo High Court Judge Mahanama Tilekeratna has written to Chief Justice G. P. S. de Silva seeking leave till the attempted murder case against him is concluded. His letter states as follows:

Since I am facing a charge of attempted murder in Kesbewa Magistrate’s Court, I personally feel that I should not sit as a Judge, until the case is concluded.

Therefore I appeal to Your Lordship, to grant me leave until the case is over. Leave may be granted from 28th September, 1998.

A senior official of the Sri Lanka Red Cross in the North had been suspended by the SLRC after he was charged with transporting in a SLRC vehicle banned goods to the uncleared areas, official sources told ‘The Island’.

The officer concerned was also questioned by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID). He was further grilled about his accompanying UNP National List MP Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena to Madhu which is within the uncleared area. Dr. Jayawardena was questioned by the CID on September 10 while the suspended official was questioned before and after questioning Dr. Jayawardena. The CID questioned them on the allegation that they had secret talks with the LTTE.

Official from the SLRC Headquarters in Colombo confirmed report of the suspension of the SLRC official.

The most recent case was last week’s detection of banned goods going to the uncleared area in a SLRC vehicle from the Kilinochchi SLRC base. The driver while being questioned by the police reportedly said that the items he was transporting were loaded on to his vehicle at Vavuniya SLRC office, the sources said.

The driver had been interdicted, SLRC spokesman said.

Security sources said that many of the humanitarian organisations are involved in smuggling civilians into the government controlled areas as well as bringing them to Colombo without a permit for large sums of money. The security officers earlier were in the practice of stopping vehicles and checking them but it was stopped after the NGOs protested against it.

They alleged that most of these illegal transportations are being carried out by the locals employed by the NGOs without the knowledge of the resident representatives of these foreign based organisations.

Officers said they charge a sum of Rs. 8,000 to 10,000 per person for a trip. “If the civilians can come in these vehicles, the LTTE can also come,” the security officers pointed out.

Meanwhile, Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena asked Defence Ministry approval to visit Madhu again. Minister of Plan Implementation and Parliamentary Affairs Jeyaraj Fernandopulle told ‘The Island’ that a sum of Rs. 400,000 was given to Dr. Jayawardena by the government for the renovation of the Madhu Tank. “Dr. Jayawardena claims that he wants to visit Madhu to see the progress of work,” Minister Fernandopulle said.

Dr. Jayawardena had sought permission to visit Madhu from October 4 to October 9.

There were no indications as to whether he had received permission from the Defence Ministry.

Plan Implementation and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle yesterday said that he fully supports proposals to legalise abortions at least on a selective basis. Minister Fernandopulle told ‘The Island’ that there was a need to amend the existing law with a view to legalising abortions. He indicated that majority of parliamentarians admit the need to permit abortions at least on a selective basis.

Gampaha district MP Fernandopulle said that some women had died as a result of complications caused by abortions performed by quack doctors.

Health and Indigenous Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva on Thursday told The Island that the government was studying proposals to legalise abortions. He admitted that the government has not rejected the calls for legalising abortions.

De Silva’s Deputy, Mrs. Pavithra Wanniarachchi said that there was nothing wrong in permitting abortions on a very selective basis. Asked whether she supports the proposals for legalising abortions, she told The Island that there was a need to discuss this issue in detail before arriving at a final decision.

“This is a controversial issue” she pointed out.

She feels that victims of rape, incest and those facing serious medical complications should be permitted to have abortions. “But you can’t change people’s attitude overnight” she said indicating that proposals supportive of abortions will face opposition.

Minister Fernandopulle said that he tendered a private members motion when he was a MP calling for the legalising of abortions.

He pointed out two SAARC member countries India and Bangladesh had legalised abortions. Nepal was in the process of doing so. Sri Lanka, as a leading member of the seven nation association must admit that there was a need to change the position on abortions. “We are already late” he said adding that although religious leaders have opposed efforts to legalise abortions, the majority of people feel that the government must bring in laws to protect those who really need abortions.

Fernandopulle said that the majority of those who seek abortions were married women. He pointed out that they wanted to have abortions when the family planning methods fail.

Fernandopulle said that it was wrong to believe that only unmarried women seek abortions. Fernandopulle, married to a doctor, said that it was stupid to refuse official approval for abortions, when hundreds of abortions were taking place daily.

According to estimates made by an agency active in Sri Lanka doing abortions, approximately 200,000 abortions are done every year.

Fernandopulle said that the people will have to understand the need to amend existing laws which ban abortions. Victims of rape, incest, medical complications and those affected by the failure of the birth control methods adopted by them must be permitted to go to government hospitals or any other recognised health institution the Minister said.

International agencies too support proposals to legalise abortions. Some feel that abortions must not be used as a tool for birth control other than to help the victims of rape, incest and medical complications.

Fernandopulle said that one reason for the large number of street children was the failure to legalise abortions and educate the low income groups on the need to follow birth control methods including abortions.

A former Assistant Superintendent of Police was arrested yesterday (25) by Mirihana police in connection with a rupee five lakh robbery which took place at Nugegoda last Thursday (24).

He was arrested in a house living with his wife situated on the Negombo - Mirigama Road.

According to police a businessman from Maharagama with his wife had encashed a cheque for rupees five hundred thousand at a bank at Nugegoda last Thursday (24) and when the couple was about to take off on their motorcycle a man armed with a revolver rushed at them and snatched the bag of money the woman was carrying and sped away on a motorcycle.

The couple gave chase on their motor-cycle, over took the man and blocked his path. When the businessman was grappling with the man, he threw the bag away. A policeman who was walking on the road at that time, soon came to the rescue of the businessman and snatched the firearm and took the man into custody.

Police said after the man was extensively grilled they found out the ex-ASP was behind the robbery.

The businessman however got back his money but minus about Rs. 25,000 which got flown over the area when the gunman threw away the bag under stress.

The currency notes were flying all over the road and some people in the vicinity had picked them up.

Later police arrested at Mirihana the brother of the man who snatched the bag of money. Police also seized a hand phone he had in his possession.

Further inquiries, have revealed that there are several criminal cases pending against the ex-police officer, police said.

Twenty five percent of males and ten percent of females among advanced level students in Sri Lanka have been victims of sexual abuse where no foreigner is involved, according to a study carried out by the Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Child Protection, Professor Harendra de Silva . In most cases the offender has been a close family member, ranging from brother, father, friend, close relative or neighbour. In some cases the offender had been a teacher at a tuition class, the study reveals.

In the case of small children they are unable to relate their experience through fear of the offender. These children he said could have been subjected to both physical and mental abuse by the offender.

Professor Silva referring to a few cases in his research work on child abuse recalled the case of a five month old girl who had been physically abused by the victims mother’s sister through jealousy. A slide was shown of fracture on the little girls skull caused by hitting her hard on the head; another showed scars of burns caused by pouring acid.

Another case was reported of a little boy of seven years physically harassed by the mother’s paramour with the intention of killing him. The boy had several ribs broken. According to the victim’s brother (a little older than he) the offender is said to have put a plank on the boy’s chest and jumped on it several times. The boy also had several scars on his buttocks and fractures on his legs and signs of his arms having been twisted (tendons in some places were broken).

According to Prof. de Silva, such cases were common among children employed as domestic servants. Some slides exhibited showed several marks caused by a rope or wire or rod clearly on the skin. Some of the scars shown were fresh while others were those that had healed without proper medication.

According to Professor Silva only the principal of a school is legally allowed to use a cane on a child as punishment, and that too is limited by law to four strokes on the palm. He said this too could cause a mental strain on the child, which would remain long after adolescence.

Dr. Silva in his research had visited several homes on information of children employed as domestic servants. Most of these homes belonged to personnel holding very high position in the armed forces.

He said he would start a casual conversation with the lady of the house inquiring as to how many modern gadgets she had in her kitchen and the lady would come out with answers such as Microwave oven etc.. The conversation would then lead to a request to have a look around, especially the kitchen and the lady without the slightest hesitation would lead him to the kitchen. The next question would be how did she manage to keep the kitchen so neat and tidy, and at once would come the answer, “Oh! I have a little girl to help me around”. A request would be made to see the girl and reluctantly the lady would call in her little girl, who appeared in clothes that were about four sizes too large for her.

“Though we tried very hard to deal with such culprits — the so-called ladies who employ such children — our efforts proved futile as they evade the law. The police turn a blind eye on the offender especially in cases where the security forces personnel are involved.

“Very often the offender is acquitted in such cases either because of wrong evidence recorded at the police stations or wrong judgements given in a court of law.

He related a story where a foreigner was involved in a case of sexual abuse of a small boy and found guilty. The offender got away with a fine of only Rs. 200. In certain cases, he said the police acts in such away that the victim ultimately becomes the offender too.

He also related a case where judgement had been given according to the available police information resulting in an eleven year old boy victim having to serve a jail sentence . The boy whilst serving the sentence was held by his breasts by a jailer and lifted off the ground for about two minutes.

“Can you imagine the pain the child would have gone through ?”he asked the audience.

At the conclusion of his lecture Prof. Silva suggested a few solutions to save our children from harassment. “First of all the masses should be educated through both electronic media and the press,” he added.

He added that in most cases children have been given as domestic servants because of poverty.

He recalled a case where a child was subjected to sexual harassment and abuse where the offender was ordered to pay the victim Rs 50,000/-. The parents were quite satisfied with the money they received.

Prof. Silva called upon the media to inform the public of cases of child abuse and suggest how legal action could be carried out in such matters.

“What we have seen is only the tip of the iceberg. A lot more has to be found, and for that arousing the awareness of the public will certainly help us to find the rest of the iceberg” he said.

Are universal social standards possible