Civil servants get March salaries

Civil servants in the Central African Republic (CAR) crowded banks in the capital, Bangui, on Tuesday and Wednesday to be paid one of the many months of salaries the government owes them.

"Despite appeals asking them to keep calm every single person wants to be paid first," Celestin Yanindji, a bank manager at the Banque Internationale pour le Centrafrique, said on Wednesday.

Labour Minister Jacques Bothy told IRIN on Wednesday that the current payout was for the month of March.

Many of the civil servants have been on striking since early October to demand their wages.

Noel Ramadan, the vice chairman of the largest trade union, known as the Union syndicale des travailleurs de Centrafrique, said the strike would continue until the government pays two months' salary arrears as it had agreed to on 12 November. In return, five of the six trade unions for civil servants had agreed not to go back on strike for at least six months.

Bothy said: "The government is still committed to its promise to pay the two months. The only problem is that for technical reasons the payrolls for two months cannot be printed at once".

He also said that the government was doing all it could to pay more of the salaries it owes.

Workers have not been paid as much as 45 months of their salaries. Most were not paid 12 month arrears under the administration of the former military ruler Gen Andre Kolingba; 24 months under former president Ange Felix Patasse and incumbent president Gen François Bozize owes them nine months' arrears.

According to a May 2004 study by the International Monetary Fund, the failure of the government to pay salaries is a leading cause of 15 years of unrest, which included army mutinies and coups.

The government is currently facing a major fiscal crisis and is waiting for international donors to provide it with monetary aid.