Gitega : President Neva attacks magistrates again
The Burundian president on Friday accused the magistrates of “taking me for a scoundrel” and once again threatened to hand over the corrupt judges to the population so that they can punish them themselves. He criticized magistrates for wanting to remain in the order of magistrates even when they are entrusted with other responsibilities, describing them as criminals and mercenaries. INFO SOS Médias Burundi
Évariste Ndayishimiye proposes to give his own vehicles, those of the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the National Assembly to judges who do not carry out trials due to lack of transportation. He announced it this Friday while launching the 2023-2024 judicial year.
He attacked magistrates who want to remain in the order of magistrates even though they have been appointed to other positions.
“The military and police agree to be seconded, but you, magistrates, want to remain in the order of magistrates even when you are appointed to other positions of responsibility. Who do you think you are?”, he insisted.
Lack of respect
“I know that among you there are some who take me for a ‘scoundrel’. I would not be surprised if you asked me one day to consult you before even taking the presidential pardon measure. But you are wrong because I remain the one and only supreme judge in this country”, the president lost his temper in front of the Minister of Justice, the Attorney General, the President of the Supreme Court and several generals of the police and the army, to the applause of a crowd that had come to witness the ceremony and the drum roll at the Ingoma stadium in the town of Gitega.
Reinforce the idea of handing over corrupt magistrates to the population
He reinforced his idea of handing over corrupt judges to the population, calling them “criminals and mercenaries”, as he did last weekend in Makamba province (south of the country) on the sidelines of the day dedicated to the Imbonerakure (members of the youth league of the CNDD-FDD, the ruling party).
“When the international community accuses the Burundian justice system of being corrupt and not independent, it should rather say that many magistrates are mercenaries and criminals because I, the supreme judge in this country, am beyond reproach. It is you who are to be blamed. If you don’t want to do your job well, tell me and I will ask the litigants…., do you need 100 million to properly handle a single case? I will ask the people and we will collect, but you will no longer have excuses…! Resign if you are no longer able to do your job”, he drove the point home.
Weaken the president
For the Burundian head of state, the magistrates who do not want to carry out the trials properly want to “weaken me, show that I am incompetent”.
He affirmed that “I often sleep three hours a day for several weeks because I love my country. But you magistrates, you want to have everything without having worked and you each time brandish the right to strike when your practices are denounced.”
Since his anticipated accession to power in June 2020 following the unexpected death of his predecessor Pierre Nkurunziza, President Ndayishimiye has always criticized his country’s judicial system, which he accuses of “being corrupt to the core”.
Local and foreign observers believe that he should go beyond “vain words” and act above all “by allowing justice to be independent and not be exploited by those in power”.
Others find that he contradicts himself since he gives a very different speech when he meets his country’s partners.
“The president should instead work to improve the functioning of the justice system, restore its independence and make it more efficient. In his remarks, the president spoke about the protection of human rights. This is a good thing. But concretely, what has he done to protect human rights? Big speeches or the dismissal of a few local authorities are not enough. If he wants the Burundian people to believe in his promises, he should end the “impunity which protects high-ranking authorities who have committed serious human rights violations for years. Moreover, Burundi’s international partners would have more confidence in him if some of these high-ranking authorities were brought to justice”, reacted this week Carina Tertsakian, associate researcher at the Initiative for Human Rights in Burundi (IDHB) in an exclusive interview given to SOS Médias Burundi on President Neva’s speech on the sidelines of the Imbonerakure day of the former Hutu rebellion.
