Judges resume work after 50-day strike

Proceedings in most courts across Burundi resumed on Wednesday when judges went back to work after a 50-day strike. The judges were heeding a call made on Sunday by their trade union leader for them to suspend the strike. Trade union leader Adelin Hatungimana issued a statement on Sunday saying the judges would give the joint government–judges committee time to work on their demands, which include better working conditions, greater independence from the government and salary increases. In his statement, he also threatened that the judges would resume their strike if the government failed to respect its commitments. Several organisations and individuals in the country have voiced their opposition to the strike, which has impacted negatively on the judicial system by creating an even greater backlog of cases. Judge Gregoire Nyamushibuka of Burundi's Court of First Instance said the strike violated prisoners’ rights as those detained in police units had been transferred to prisons without arrest warrants. Police Superintendent Jean Doyidoyi said he had sent prisoners to Mpimba Prison - Bujumbura's main detention facility - on the orders of the attorney general. "The measure was taken to avoid the increase of criminality and also to avoid exceeding the legal detention period in police prisons," Doyidoyi said. The director of Mpimba Prison, Col. Kobako Cymaque, told IRIN that 164 people were transferred to that prison without a magistrate's arrest warrant during the strike. He said the prisoners' files would now be sent to tribunals for the normal procedure to be followed. Nyamushibuka said this would violate the legal procedure, as only a judge was entitled to sign an arrest warrant and decide on the prisoner's indictment. He added that this would require that the judges visit different prisons to ensure that such prisoners had been legally detained. The judges resumed work without the government meeting most of their demands. Since the beginning of the strike, the government kept saying it was unable to increase the judges' salaries under the country's current economic situation. The country has been paralysed by a 10-year civil war. However, a joint government–magistrate committee has been set up to review the independence of the judicial system and make proposals to the government on the implementation of the magistrate’s statutes. Under the terms of the accord for peace and reconciliation, which was signed in Arusha, Tanzania, in 2000, the judicial system was to undergo drastic reforms to put in place an ethnically balanced judicial system, currently dominated by Tutsis.