25.09.07 - BURUNDI/JUSTICE - THE TRAINING OF BURUNDIAN JOURNALISTS ON JUSTICE IS INSUFFICIENT (NCC)

25 September 2007 By

Bujumbura, 25 September 2007 (FH) - Burundian journalists do not have the necessary training to accompany the mechanism of transitional justice in the country, stated the vice-president of the National Communication Council (NCC) Abbot Emmanuel Muyehe in an interview with the Hirondelle agency

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"At this present time, Burundian journalists are not sufficiently equipped to effectively support the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), they do not have this experience", declared Muyehe. "We want to increase their abilities so that they can be able to scrupulously monitor the work of the TRC and progressively inform the public with the happenings", he underlined

The NCC is organizing training workshops for local journalists to prepare them to accompany the process of transitional justice, whose explanation campaign throughout the country should start "soon". More than two hundred journalists have already undergone training on certain basic theories related to transitional justice used by jurists.

The President of the Republic, Pierre Nkurunziza, made available to the NCC 20 million Burundian francs (nearly 20 thousand dollars) for the organization of these workshops.

The TRC is one of the mechanisms of transitional justice planned in the Arusha Agreement of August 2000 which, even if it aims at reconciliation in the country, must, above all, shine light on the crimes committed in Burundi since 1962.