Daily Edition: San José, Costa Rica, May 07,  2003

Teachers Protest Payment Glitches
More than 2,000 teachers, union representatives and students marched on the capital yesterday to protest the government's inability to solve computer glitches that have cost hundreds of teachers their salaries in recent months and prompted educators to demand the immediate resignation of Education Minister Astrid Fischel.
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Nigeria Thanks C.R. for Letter Campaign
Adenike Ebun Oyagbola, Nigerian Ambassador to Mexico and Central America, met with Minister of Women's Affairs Esmeralda Britton yesterday to extend Nigerian President Olusegún Obasanjo's appreciation for Costa Rica's recent signature campaign to save the life Amina Lawal, sentenced to death under the Islamic-based Sharia law for having a child out of wedlock.
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Fifth Suspected SARS Case Monitored
Public Health Minister Rocío Sáenz yesterday claimed that the fifth suspected SARS (atypical pneumonia) case in Costa Rica, a man living in the central Pacific port town of Puntarenas, appears to be another false alarm.
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Teachers Protest Payment Glitches
By Fabián Borges
and Amanda Schoenberg
Tico Times Staff

AFP/TT

More than 2,000 teachers, union representatives and students marched on the capital yesterday to protest the government's inability to solve computer glitches that have cost hundreds of teachers their salaries in recent months and prompted educators to demand the immediate resignation of Education Minister Astrid Fischel.

The march came after Fischel acknowledged system failures for the first time Monday, but then blamed the persistent problems, in part, on the previous two government administrations and the company responsible for the computer payment program. She also pointed the finger at the Ministry of Education's computer-system administrators, who promised her that the new computer system was ready for use last November.

Fischel also claimed system administrators acted "unilaterally" to authorize the automatic payment reductions, which affected as many as 10,000 teachers last month (TT, May 2).

The Minister said a full diagnostic report analyzing the payment problems would be released Friday, adding that she hoped all missing salaries would be paid in full by mid-May.

Despite Fischel's urging teachers not to "abandon their classrooms," the teachers began to march yesterday morning at 10, from the Fuente de la Hispanidad in San Pedro -- one of the major traffic arteries to San José. In anticipation of the demonstration, police sealed off the southbound lanes of the rotundas, forcing bus drivers to "improvise" new routes through residential neighborhoods and the wrong way up one-way streets.

Most protesters were teachers from the Central Valley, but a significant number journeyed in from rural areas, where most of the salary glitches have occurred.

Protesters sang patriotic songs and chanted slogans criticizing the government and demanding Fischel's resignation. Roaring chants of "She's flunked, Fischel needs to go," "Salaries are just and necessary" and "Our patience has run out, our salaries have not arrived" could be heard several kilometers away.

Throughout the march, union representatives handed out red cards (expulsion cards in a soccer match) with Fischel's name on them.

"Our children are dying of hunger; everybody gets to eat except the educators," charged one elementary school teacher from the Caribbean-slope town of Turrialba. "They always take advantage of us, but without us there is no education."

The massive turnout was celebrated as a show of force for the once-struggling teachers' unions.

"I feel the union movement is once again flourishing, this is a definitive moment," Fernando Calderón, of the National Secondary School Teacher's Union (APSE) told The Tico Times. "Not receiving salaries was the last straw. They have promised to fix the problem, but have done nothing. Pacheco asks us for patience. How can teachers be patient when they don't have enough money to buy food?"

Calderón stressed that Costa Rica needs qualified and experienced people heading the Education Ministry, "not politicians appointed by their party."

"We need a Minister with knowledge and vision, and Ms. Fischel has neither requirement," the union leader charged.

By 10:45 a.m., most protesters had arrived at Casa Presidencial, south of San José, where they demonstrated peacefully as the rain began.

Union leaders threatened to declare a general strike unless they were allowed to meet directly with Pacheco.

"Don Abel, here are the educators, without their salaries, demanding you listen to them," Eduardo Rojas, President of the National Association of Educators, said over a megaphone while Pacheco was holding his weekly Cabinet meeting inside.

Taking advantage of the politically charged atmosphere, two opposition congressional deputies of the National Liberation Party borrowed the megaphone to address the educators.

"We were part of this, we did nothing while this happened," Congressman Luis Paulino Rodríguez said. "We confess our sin, it's now time to correct this."

"Before joining Congress, I was an educator just like you," Congresswoman Nury Garita told protesters. "The government has tried to score many goals against you. I wonder if the Minister can sleep at night. Your children aren't sleeping because there is no food on the table."

Pacheco agreed to meet with union representatives at 12:30 p.m.

Before the meeting, Pacheco told reporters that he sympathized with the teachers, referring to the salary mistakes as "a horrible travesty." He once again promised to do everything in his power to correct the snafu by the end of the month.

"The teachers have great reason to be angry; I understand them perfectly," the President said. "It's shameful, they've been denied their hard-earned salaries due to a technical problem. We will investigate this fully and prosecute those responsible to the fullest extent of the law. We identify with their cause."

Pacheco defended Fischel, and insisted she would not lose her job over the incident.

"As far as I know, doña Astrid is Education Minister and not the person in charge of the ministry's computers," he said. "It would be unfair to use her as a scapegoat and fire her."
Read Friday's TT print edition for complete details.

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Nigeria Thanks C.R. for Letter Campaign

Lawal and daughter Wasila AFP/TT

Adenike Ebun Oyagbola, Nigerian Ambassador to Mexico and Central America, met with Minister of Women's Affairs Esmeralda Britton yesterday to extend Nigerian President Olusegún Obasanjo's appreciation for Costa Rica's recent signature campaign to save the life Amina Lawal, sentenced to death under the Islamic-based Sharia law for having a child out of wedlock.

The Nigerian diplomat thanked Costa Rica for being the only country to send signatures directly to the Sharia High Court of Appeals in Katsina, Nigeria, and not to the central government, which opposes the death sentence.

"The visit of Ambassador Oyagbola confirms the importance of our humanitarian campaign to collect signatures," said Foreign Minister Roberto Tovar. "We again want to thank all the men and women who signed the documents; as you can see, our voice is being heard. We still maintain hope that the life of Amina Lawal will be saved."

The two-week long signature campaign garnered more than 130,000 names during the first two weeks of March, according to the Foreign Ministry. The booklet at The Tico Times' office collected 360 signatures (TT, March 21).

Lawal, a 31-year-old divorcee, was sentenced to death by stoning for having a child out of wedlock. Her death sentence has sparked international outcry, and prompted the Costa Rican government to launch a massive signature campaign in hopes of appealing to the Islamic court's sense of humanity (TT, March 7).

State Sharia Court of Appeals was scheduled to rule on Lawal's fate March 25, but the hearing was suspended until June3 when the chief judge failed to show for the hearing (TT Daily Page, March 26).

Lawal is the second woman to be sentenced to death for adultery under Sharia law, adopted in the predominantly Muslim north of the African nation in 1999. In March 2002, an appeals court overturned a similar sentence for Safiya Hussaini, 35, on the grounds that the act occurred before the code was adopted.

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Fifth Suspected SARS Case Monitored
By Fabián Borges
Tico Times Staff

Public Health Minister Rocío Sáenz yesterday claimed that the fifth suspected SARS (atypical pneumonia) case in Costa Rica, a man living in the central Pacific port town of Puntarenas, appears to be another false alarm.

"Of the five suspected SARS cases reported in our country, only three required hospitalization and two of these cases have already been dismissed," she explained. "The remaining suspected case, a man from Puntarenas, seems to be recovering well, which makes us believe that he does not SARS. However, we are awaiting the final test results, which will be ready Wednesday."

Costa Rica's biggest SARS scare so far, a 39-year-old man who became ill after returning from Toronto, Canada, was eased last week when doctors determined he was not infected with the frequently deadly illness, which is caused by a hitherto unknown virus and has wreaked havoc in China, the hardest-hit country.

A special SARS task force comprising the Health and Public Security Ministries, the Costa Rican Tourism Board and the Civil Aviation Authority, met last week to define what measures the country will take to prevent the disease.

The task force increased security measures at the nation's ports and airports.

Officials, meanwhile, are looking into the possibility of having medical personnel check every person who arrives in the country by plane, but there are currently no plans to implement the measure, she said.

The task force next week will launch a public-awareness campaign for airport staff and the population in general on what steps can be taken to prevent the spread of the disease.

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