Thursday 04 September
2008, San José, Costa Rica
COLOMBIA:
Justice on Strike
By Constanza Vieira
BOGOTA (IPS) -
Some 34,000 judicial
sector employees in
Colombia began an
indefinite strike
Wednesday, demanding
labour stability, the
enforcement of a new
salary scheme, and
guarantees of
independence for the
courts.
Monday’s devastating
car-bomb attack on the
Palace of Justice in the
western city of Cali was
just one more reason for
the protest.
"All judicial
proceedings are being
suspended…in the civil,
administrative, labour
and criminal spheres,"
announced Fabio
Hernández, president of
the National Association
of Judicial Branch
Employees (Asonal
Judicial).
Eighty percent of the
sector’s 43,000 workers
are going on strike,
"which will be general
and will affect all
jurisdictions," although
"we will continue to
attend extremely serious
cases," he added.
The Asonal Judicial
presented a list of
grievances and demands
in November 2007, but
"the government has kept
silent," said Tarsicio
Mora, president of the
Central Unitaria de
Trabajadores (CUT),
Colombia’s main trade
union confederation, of
which the Asonal
Judicial is a member.
"The avenue of dialogue
has been exhausted. The
workers have no other
option than to protest,"
said Mora, who added
that "it is clear that
there is no dialogue
here with the social
sectors, and even less
in the case of the
labour union movement."
The Asonal Judicial is
demanding a new salary
scheme, as established
by a 1992 law that has
only been partially
implemented and
enforced.
Another problem, said
Mora, is that public
employees have no labour
stability, because they
are hired under
fixed-term contracts
that may or may not be
renewed at any given
time. "There are civil
servants who have been
working for more than 20
years as temporary
public employees, even
though that is illegal,"
he stressed.
Labour instability
affects more than 18,000
judicial branch
employees. Many have
worked for a decade or
more under fixed-term
contracts that must be
periodically renewed.
Currently, 4,000 judges
and other judicial
branch workers are
facing the possibility
of losing their jobs in
December.
Apecides Alvis,
president of the
Confederación de
Trabajadores de Colombia
(CTC), Colombia’s oldest
central union, founded
in 1936, said that
reducing the number of
judges or appointing new
ones would require a
period of adaptation for
the proceedings
presently under way,
which "would clearly
generate great
difficulties." In
response to a question
from IPS, Asonal
Judicial president
Hernández said the
situation "undoubtedly"
affects the independence
of the justice system,
"because the mechanism
of temporary contracts
is used to pressure
judicial branch
employees to adopt
certain kinds of
decisions at a given
moment."
That is a particularly
touchy aspect at a time
when those most
responsible for the
massacres and killings
committed in Colombia’s
decades-long civil war
have come under the
scrutiny of the justice
system.
Colombia has been caught
in the grip of an armed
conflict since the
mid-1960s, when the
leftist guerrilla groups
rose up in arms. In the
1980s, far-right
paramilitary militias
emerged to fight the
insurgents, in alliance
with government forces.
"The country needs
investigations and
clear, prompt sentences
in these questions --
‘para-politics’ and
paramilitary activity --
that have shaken
Colombian society," said
Hernández.
He was referring to the
legal investigations and
prosecutions of
legislators for their
alleged ties with the
paramilitary groups,
which are blamed for the
lion’s share of the
atrocities committed in
Colombia’s civil war,
and that have partially
demobilised as a result
of controversial
negotiations with the
rightwing administration
of Álvaro Uribe.
Nearly all of the
roughly 70 lawmakers
under arrest or
investigation are Uribe
allies.
Hernández added that
"society needs responses
to the demands of the
victims and the
population at large --
answers that are in line
with the magnitude of
the crimes committed,"
many of which are
classified as war crimes
and crimes against
humanity.
"If the public employees
who have this delicate
mission are not even
sure of their jobs, it
is very easy to pressure
or manipulate them,"
said the head of the
Asonal Judicial.
"We have demanded that
the government ensure
their labour stability,
given the experience,
performance and
responsibility level of
these workers," said
Hernández.
In fact, respect for the
independence of the
judiciary is the first
point on the list of
demands presented by the
Asonal Judicial.
"A very serious
situation has arisen
from the meddling of the
executive branch in
judicial affairs, and
from the constant
aggression," he said,
referring to Uribe’s
repeated verbal attacks
on the magistrates
handling the cases
against dozens of
members of Congress who
are implicated in what
has been dubbed the "para-politics"
or "para-gate" scandal.
"Colombia’s judicial
branch is facing a
critical situation,"
because the president
"is constantly lashing
out at the highest
echelons of the
judiciary, particularly
regarding the work of
the criminal chamber of
the Supreme Court in the
‘para-politics’
investigations," said
Hernández.
He complained that the
attacks "by the
president and the
executive branch as a
whole have been
systematic and organised,
aimed at delegitimising,
at any cost, the
judicial investigations"
in these cases.
The Asonal Judicial’s
list of demands calls
for "the establishment
of clear mechanisms for
guaranteeing respect for
the independence and
autonomy of the judicial
branch, a normal aspect
of any state of law," he
added.
Last week, Argentine
jurist Luis Moreno
Ocampo, chief prosecutor
of the International
Criminal Court (ICC),
raised red flags by
making a three-day visit
to Colombia.
In the scenario of
Colombia’s internal
armed conflict, where
"we have an enormous
number of crimes and a
massive number of
criminals," the criteria
being followed is "to go
after the people who may
be considered among
those most responsible,"
Moreno Ocampo said in
Bogotá.
Against this backdrop, a
car-bomb went off early
Monday near the Palace
of Justice in Cali,
Colombia’s third-largest
city, killing four
people and injuring 20.
Ten of the 18 stories of
one of the two courtroom
building towers were
totally destroyed by the
blast, including some
200 offices and the
computers in them, while
the paper files and
archives were also
damaged.
More than 500 other
buildings were damaged
by the explosion as
well, and the city
government declared a
state of emergency on
Tuesday. Even without a
strike, a 10-day
suspension of legal
proceedings was declared
in that city. On
Wednesday, the
courthouse was
surrounded by white
carnations, and judges
were picking their way
through the ruins, to
see what could be
salvaged.
President Uribe, Defence
Minister Juan Manuel
Santos and national
police chief General
Óscar Naranjo blamed the
bombing on the "Manuel
Cepeda" column of the
leftwing Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC).
But "it was not the
Manuel Cepeda column.
That has been
confirmed," an analyst
who closely follows the
war with the FARC told
IPS.
The perpetrators must be
sought in the drug
trafficking gangs that
are active in the
region, said the expert,
with the Corporación
Nuevo Arco Iris, a think
tank in Bogotá that
focuses on peace and
development issues.
The president of the
Asonal Judicial said
that "we were really
struck by the fact that
this attack occurred
just prior to our
strike, which was
announced over a month
ago."
"We prefer to wait and
see what the
investigation reveals,"
before reaching any
conclusions, said
Hernández.
But "if this was an
attempt at intimidating
judicial branch
employees, they have
wasted their time and
their criminal act.
Because we are going to
continue with this
movement, which we see
as necessary to improve
the administration of
justice in Colombian
society and, of course,
the well-being of the
judicial sector
workers," he said.
Mora, of the CUT, said
the judicial branch "has
been especially
beleaguered and
harassed, and has been
hit hard by the war.
More than 26 judges and
other judicial sector
employees have been
killed," including three
so far in 2008, he
noted.
The country’s trade
union confederations and
a number of social
organisations have
announced a Sept. 11
demonstration in support
of the Supreme Court.
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