Strike halts African trial

BBC News, 27 December 2000

The trial of seventy-three people arrested during a banned opposition protest in the Central African Republic last week has been postponed—because court officials are on strike.

The clerks of the court stopped work several weeks ago, so the judges who were expected to preside over the trial didn't turn up.

Many government workers in the Central African Republic have been on strike since October in protest at not being paid properly for more than two years.

The opposition blames the country's economic crisis on the government of President Ange Felix Patase. The trial of the protestors has now been rescheduled for Friday.