OUTRAGE at the decision to suspend the judge involved in the investigation of the child sex murders case has provoked spontaneous strikes and demonstrations across this country.
Firemen sprayed a local courthouse with water to "clean up Belgian justice", while others have joined steel, phone, train, bus and car workers on strike. There have been marches in at least five cities. Outside the Courts of Justice in Brussels a permanent vigil awaits what promises to be one of the biggest demonstrations ever seen here this Sunday - the rail company has even offered cheap flat fares to the capital from all over the country.
Families of the victims who called the march have appealed for calm, as did the suspended judge, the popular Mr Jean-Marc Connerrotte.
Nervous politicians across the spectrum have deplored the suspension although some have acknowledged reluctantly joined by some newspapers and academics - that the highest court in the land, the Cour de Cassations, had little choice but to suspend Judge Connerotte or face the possibility of the case being overturned on appeal or at the European Court of Human Rights.
The Prime Minister, Mr Jean-Luc Dehaene, has appealed to the public to accept the rule of law and the separation of powers of judiciary and executive.
Judge Connerotte had attended a fund-raising function for the legal costs of families of some of the victims of Mr Marc Dutroux at which he had been presented with a commemorative pen worth some £20. The lawyer of Mr Droux, Mr Julien Pierre, now almost as hated as his client, demanded his sacking on the grounds that his independence was clearly compromised.
But the court, responding to widespread public concern, refused to suspend the official prosecutor who was with him at the function, and has left the inquiry in the charge of the respected Neufchateau authorities to the intense relief of the public. It has also made clear all Judge Connerotte's decisions to date still stand.
"The work is going to continue, to get to the bottom of the investigation," the Justice Minister, Mr, Stefaan De Clerck promised Belgian television. "I will even consider if it is possible to designate a second investigating magistrate to reinforce the team.
Mr De Clerck said Judge Connerotte could still be useful to the Dutroux inquiry. "There are so many dossiers and elements in those dossiers, and further evidence is coming in, that there is a chance Mr Connerotte could still be useful in some way," he told BRTN radio.
He also said he had "full confidence" in the magistrate, and that he would meet again last night the parents of the murdered eight-year-olds Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo following a meeting late Monday.
Mr Dutroux has been charged with abducting six girls, four of whom have been found dead.
The other two who died were An Marchal (17) and Eefje, Lambrecks (19). Two girls were rescued in August, in part, it is widely believed, due to the speed and diligence of the Neufchateau prosecutor, Mr Michel Bourlet.
Mr Bourlet is still in the job and has promised to pursue the case "as far as I am allowed".
On Friday, a Flemish papers revealed he has submitted a report to the Cour de Cassations suggesting the Dutroux paedophile ring goes back 25 years and involves politicians, magistrates and businessmen.
The families have said they will appeal the suspension of Judge Connerotte, allowing, their lawyer claims controversially, the judge to continue until the appeal is heard.
Meanwhile, the painstaking search for bodies continues in a disused mineshaft near the southern town of Jumet where Mr Dutroux has suggested they may find something else.
Parents of children still missing wait in agonised suspense.
. Belgium is to organise and host an international conference next June to discuss a treaty banning anti-personnel mines, the humanitarian organisation, Handicap International, yesterday at a press conference to mark the publication of the group's book, Anti-personnel Mines: War in Peacetime.
