Gendarmes arrest teachers' union leaders

Burundian gendarmes arrested on Tuesday the leaders of the two main teachers' unions in the country after they held a meeting with striking teachers in the capital, Bujumbura, to evaluate the stoppage that began countrywide on 5 January. Upon their arrest, the representative of the Union of Burundi Educational Workers, Eulalie Nibizi; and the leader of the Free Union of Burundi Education, Adolphe Wakana, were taken to a jail of the government's intelligence services, known as the Documentation Nationale; Wakana's deputy, Chantal Nahishakiye, told IRIN. On Friday, the public service minister suspended the two unions and a third, the National Council of Secondary Education Staff, accusing them of breaking the law. However, the suspension was lifted on Saturday. At a meeting on Tuesday with parents, senior officials of the Ministry of Education and student representatives, President Domitien Ndayizeye ordered security forces to take action. "We cannot tolerate this, I order security forces to arrest and put in jail teachers or students who behave as troublemakers," he said. "I am ready to go before the court to justify these arrests." He added that the government had done much to resolve the teachers' problems, but "unfortunately they do not recognise government efforts". Some 5,000 secondary school teachers went on strike to pressure the government to honour a promised salary increase. On 9 February, another 15,000 primary school teachers joined the other strikers. The strike has put at least one million children out of school countrywide. The teachers say they would resume work and continue talks on the outstanding issues only if the government pays salaries for the period they have been on strike, but the government has refused. Attempts by the country's main human rights body, League Iteka, to mediate have failed. The teachers went on a month-long strike in 2002 over delays in the payment of their salaries.