Magistrates on four-day strike

Magistrates in Burundi continued to stay away from their offices and the court rooms on Tuesday, Burundi news organisations said. The magistrates had called the four-day strike which started on Monday, demanding the implementation of the presidential decree on the scheme f subsidies and allowances for judges and the modernisation of the bar, Burundi radio said. It quoted the president of the judicial union of Burundi as saying that the strike action came as “a last resort”. “The government was showing reluctance when it came to implementing the decree on terms and conditions of service for members of the judiciary,” he said. Burundi news agency, Net Press also quoted one of the magistrates as rejecting the justice minister’s allegations on Sunday that there was a “foreign hand behind the movement”. According to the magistrate, they could not allow themselves to be manipulated by politicians “since we do not have the same vision and aims. They fight for political posts (in government, parliament and senate) while we want the implementation of our new statutes”. He said the main aim of the strike was to bring about genuine equality between all the powers (executive, legislative and judiciary) with equal means of action. “We must be part of a genuine third power,” he said. Meanwhile, Burundi’s national office for telecommunications trade union (Onatel), announced that it would resume its strike on Wednesday in reaction to the recommendations made after the meeting last month of ministers of national defence, transport, posts and telecommunications with businessmen from the telecommunications sector.