Judges suspend their two-month strike

Judges across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Monday suspended a strike they had begun at the end of October, demanding better pay and working conditions, as well as greater independence of action. According to Sambay Mutenda Lukusa, the president of the Gombe Court of Appeals and president of the judges' union that called the strike, said its suspension would enable the parliament and government "to negotiate seriously and undisturbed with the third power that is the judiciary". A week earlier, the Congolese transitional parliament had established a commission to mediate between the government and the judiciary. A similar commission had been established several weeks prior to that. "We have returned to work, because we were satisfied that the other powers were beginning to take the issue of judicial independence seriously," Sambay said. In the past, judges have often been manipulated by politicians, and accused of accepting bribes to supplement low salaries. The 1,700 judges who had been on strike have resumed their duties without any resolution of their demands for higher salaries, an issue they said was closely linked to independence of the judiciary. "The financial question was part of our larger concern of ensuring an independent judiciary," Sambay said. They had been demanding that monthly salaries be increased to at least US $950. Currently, they are only paid between $15 and $40 per month, and are owed salary arrears. They must often work in dirty and dilapidated chambers. According to Sambay, the judges also chose to suspend their strike on humanitarian grounds. "We felt that it was important to resolve the problems of persons arrested during the past two months, and to enable plaintiffs to seek justice," he said. "We also realised that increasing crime rates while we were on strike could not be ended by the police alone." In November, DRC President Joseph Kabila reinstated 315 judges who had been sacked en-masse in 1998 for striking over pay and independence of the judiciary.