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Roundup: Burundi says to leave ICC following UN report

Xinhua, October 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Burundi has decided to pull out of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) as the ICC violates black people's rights, Burundian First Vice-President Gaston Sindimwo said Thursday.

Sindimwo made the announcement in Gitega province, 102km east of the Burundian capital Bujumbura while talking to citizens.

According to him, the Burundian government has sent a bill on the review of the Rome Statute of the ICC to the National Assembly for Burundi's pullout.

"The ICC plan is to violate black people's rights. We (Burundi) are taking the front (to pull out of the ICC) so that other countries follow us because injustice perpetrated by those colonialists is unbearable," said Sindimwo.

Adopted in Rome on July 17, 1998, the Rome Statute of the ICC is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court.

The Statute established four core international crimes, including genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.

The Burundian government's decision to pull out comes at a time when the UN Human Rights Council on Sept. 30, 2016 issued a resolution whereby it adopted a report by three UN independent experts on "gross and abundant" human rights violations in the country between April 2015 and June 2016.

However, the Burundian government rejected the report, saying that it was biased and unprofessional.

Burundian lawyer Fabien Segatwa told Xinhua that the pullout decision comes at an "inadequate" time.

"As an observer, the decision comes at a challenging time. By pulling out of the Rome Statute of the ICC, the Burundian government shows that it has a hidden agenda. Instead, it should set up a national inquiry commission that would investigate whether human rights violations took place, and sanction perpetrators of those crimes," said Segatwa.

Burundi plunged into a crisis since April 2015 when Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run his controversial third term in violation of the national constitution and the 2000 Arusha Agreement.

More than 500 people in Burundi have been killed, and the UN Refugee Agency estimates that about 300,000 people fled to neighboring countries, mostly Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) and Uganda since the outbreak of the crisis. Enditem